977.3 
K82p 


>P.  KOFOID 


PURITAN    INFLUENCES    IN    THE 
FORMATIVE   YEARS    OF   ILLI- 
NOIS   HISTORY 


LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

STEWART  S.  HOWE 

JOURNALISM  CLASS  OF  1928 


STEWART  S.  HOWE  FOUNDATION 


977.3 
K82p 


Puritan  Influences 


IN  THE 


Formative    Years   of  Illinois 

History 


BY 


CARRIE    PRUDENCE    KOFOID. 


SPRINGFIELD: 

ILLINOIS  STATE  JOURNAL  COMPANY, 

1906. 


''   3 

K  ?        -ip  ^}  L-  •  ( 

> -^-o«. 


Puritan  Influences  in  the  Formative 
Years  of  Illinois  History 


BY 


r\ 

CARRIE  PRUDENCE  KOFOID. 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  1LLINO! 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
Chapter      I.     A  Puritan  village  in  Illinois 5 

II.  Organization  of  Home  Missionary  Societies  in  New  Eng- 
land. Motives  which  led  to  their  continued  support. 
Methods  adopted  for  their  work 7 

III,  First  missionary  tours  in  Illinois 12 

IV.  1812-1826.     Beginnings  of  missionary  work.     The  Andover 

period 17 

V.     1826-1833.     The  Yale  period.     Entering  Central   Illinois. 

Opening  of  Illinois  College.     The  outpost  at  Galena. ...         19 

VI.  1833-1860.  Growth  of  the  churches  in  northern  Illinois. 
Chicago,  Fox  River  region,  Rockford.  A  lessened  inter- 
est in  Southern  Illinois.  Effect  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  on  church  growth  in  Eastern  Illinois 28 

VII.     Difficulties  of  the  New  England  pioneers 32 

VIII.  The  effect  of  economic  conditions  on  growth  of  churches. 
Rapid  immigration,  inflation,  depression,  crop  adapta- 
tion, emigration 35 

IX.     Internal    difficulties.     Separation  of  the    Congregational 

and  Presbyterian  organizations  in  frontier  work 38 

X.     SPECIAL  PROBLEMS  OF  MISSIONARY    WORK  IN   SOUTHERN 

ILLINOIS 41 

XI.     Adverse  sentiment 44 

XII.  Puritanism  and  the  Slavery  issue.  Proposed  constitu- 
tional amendment  of  1823.  Riots  in  Alton  and  Quincy. 
The  Underground  Railroad.  Anti-slavery  politics 49 

XIII.     Ecclesiastical  rivalries ..  64 


XIV.     Educational  influence.      Contest  for  free  schools.      Jona- 
than B.  Turner  and  the  State  University.     Academies. . 


70 


CHAPTER   I*. 


A  PURITAN  VILLAGE  IN  ILLINOIS. 


In  the  north  central  part  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  a  hundred  miles 
above  Springfield,  lies  a  little  village  in  the  midst  of  the  rich  prairie 
country.  The  town  itself  is  on  a  slight  rise  of  land  so  that  it  over- 
looks the  country  for  miles  around.  On  every  side  stretch  the  well 
kept  farms.  On  a  bright  fall  day  it  is  a  particularly  pleasant  scene; 
everywhere  the  great  fields  of  corn,  golden  brown  in  the  sunlight,  and 
moving  slowly  here  and  there  the  huge  wagons  laden  with  the  golden 
ears.  The  expanse  of  field  is  broken  by  orchards,  a  little  woodland 
where  some  prairie  stream  makes  its  way  toward  the  Illinois  river,  or 
a  clump  of  trees  or  a  windmill  which  indicates  the  location  of  some 
well-kept  farm  house.  There  is  little  going  on  in  the  tiny  town  itself; 
a  few  stores,  dispersing  points  for  necessary  supplies,  a  large  school 
house  with  its  ebb  and  flow  of  noise  and  silence.  The  roads  are 
good,  the  trees  abundant  and  large,  the  houses  neat  and  comfortable 
and  all  pervaded  by  an  air  of  quiet  and  repose  that  calls  at  once  to 
mind  the  old  New  England  village  off  the  line  of  the  railroad.  Not 
until  1900  did  a  railroad  reach  this  village.  No  mines,  no  large  in- 
dustries have  ever  been  started  in  its  vicinity.  Everything  has 
conspired  to  keep  the  community,  aside  from  the  slow  progress  and 
material  improvement  that  comes  with  years,  in  the  same  social  con- 
dition with  the  same  ideals  and  ideas  that  were  stamped  on  it  in  the 
first  thirty  years  of  its  existence.  It  is  a  town  typical  of  many  that 
have  arisen  in  northern  Illinois,  but  owing  to  its  comparative  isolation 
it  has  preserved  longer  than  many  its  independence  of  the  bustling 
activities  of  the  world.  Yet  this  little  town  and  others  like  it  have 
stood  for  much  in  the  development  of  the  great  State.  What  has 
been  the  central  organization,  the  central  force  to  hold  it  together 
and  make  it  count  for  something  both  for  its  own  community  and  the 
world  at  large?  Where,  to  borrow  a  term  from  silence,  has  been  the 
dynamic  center? 

All  the  week  the  ordinary  busy  routine  of  life  goes  on,  each  family 
working  to  and  for  itself.  When  Sunday  comes  there  is  a  change. 

From  practically  every  house  in  the  village  the  people  take  their 
way  to  that  modest,  ample  church,  so  centrally  and  conspicuously 
placed.  From  away  out  over  the  prairie  the  teams  come  with  whole 
families.  About  the  church  the  wagons  stand  thick;  and  inside,  the 
large  and  handsome  audience  room  is  well  filled.  They  are  all  there, 

*  This  paper  was  accepted  by  the  University  of  Illinois  as  a  thesis  for  the  degree  of  Master 
of  Arts  in  History.— [ED  ] 


men,  women  and  children,  the  aged  people  and  the  young  men  and 
women.  After  the  morning  service  apparently  a  large  part  of  the 
congregation  remain  for  Sunday  School  or  gather  about  the  building 
and  talk  in  little  groups.  On  every  face  is  an  aspect  of  deep  satisfac- 
tion with  the  course  of  the  day's  procedure.  Perhaps  today  this 
scene  cannot  be  witnessed  in  many  places  in  Illinois,  a  community 
where  the  church  lays  her  hand  on  the  whole  population  and  where 
willing  and  glad,  even  if  somewhat  conventional,  allegiance  is  granted 
to  her  claims. 

But  in  this  town  for  some  sixty  years  this  scene  has  been  renewed 
from  week  to  week  and  it  is  the  only  power,  the  only  organization  in 
the  community,  which  has  so  brought  its  people  together.  This 
phenomenon,  if  one  pleases  so  to  call  it,  so  remarkably  preserved  to 
us  today,  is  but  the  working  of  an  organization  which  in  earlier  years 
deliberately  entered  Illinois  to  have  its  part  in  moulding  its  future. 
It  has  worked  hard  and  long.  It  has  accomplished  much. 

The  history  of  this  one  church  of  the  New  England  faith  is  typical 
of  many  others.  Some  two  miles  out  of  town  where  the  pioneer  set- 
tlement began  was  the  pioneer  church,  a  rude  building  twenty  by 
forty  feet,  at  first  built  of  logs,  but  gathering  a  congregation  of  two 
or  three  hundred  on  Sunday.  This  log  church  was  followed  in  time 
by  a  large  brick  building,  the  pride  of  all  the  region  around.  Today 
its  plain  Doric  outline,  softened  by  ivy,  deserted  and  crumbling,  is 
pleasing  and  satisfying  to  the  eye.  In  the  40s  it  was  called  one  of 
the  most  flourishing  churches  in  the  State.  It  gathered  into  its  am- 
ple fold  both  Northerner  and  Southerner.  It  was  in  the  church  that 
their  conflicting  opinions  were  worked  over  and.  not  without  suffering 
on  both  sides,  the  New  England  ideal  maintained.  To  this  region 
also  came  in  the  40s  and  50s,  the  thrifty  Germans,  Danes  and  Swedes 
from  the  old  country,  seeking  earnestly  freedom  and  enlightenment. 
There  was  power  in  the  church  to  adapt  itself  to  the  needs  of  these. 
All  were  made  one  in  the  house  of  God.  Today  you  trace  their  fair 
hair  and  blue  eyes  in  the  congregation  and  the  children  of  the  for- 
eigner are  at  home  in  the  teachings  of  the  Puritans. 

This  community  had  its  theological  difficulties;  organized  as  a 
Presbyterian  church,  divided  by  Old  School  and  New  School  doc- 
trines, it  emerged  in  the  50s  as  a  Congregational  church.  Within  its 
walls  its  chief  talk  was  of  personal  righteousness ;  but  there  was  a 
firm  belief  that  next  to  righteousness  the  success  of  the  community 
and  of  the  state  and  nation  of  which  this  community  was  so  conspicu- 
ous a  part,  rested  on  education.  So  under  the  fostering  care  of  the 
church  grew  up  the  public  school,  the  village  academy,  which  might, 
if  circumstances  favored,  grow  even  into  a  college,  and  the  young 
ladies'  seminary.  They  sent  east  for  teachers  that  their  youth  might 
have  the  best.  The  special  glory  of  tbe  little  town  is,  that  here  first 
gathered  kindred  souls  to  talk  over  a  form  of  education  which  should 
be  the  crown  of  all  the  State's  work  for  her  children,  plans  that  finally 
led  to  the  State  universities  which  are  doing  so  much  for  the  west. 

With  this  one  record  in  mind,  we  turn  to  conditions  in  New  Eng- 
land for  the  starting  point. 


CHAPTER   II. 


HOME  MISSIONARY  SOCIETIES  IN  NEW 
ENGLAND. 


Efforts  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  characterized  the  early 
settlers  of  New  England  and  have  always  had  a  place  in  the  activities 
of  their  descendants.  Opportunities  and  methods  have  changed,  but 
under  such  form  such  work  has  gone  on  from  the  beginning  of  New 
England's  history.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the  General  Associa- 
tion of  the  churches  superintended  such  work,  sending  out  settled 
pastors  from  their  home  churches  for  periods  of  missionary  work  in 
new  settlements  and  among  the  Indians.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
century  special  societies  began  to  come  into  existence,  the  New  York 
Missionary  Society  in  1796.  the  Massachusetts  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety in  1799.  The  work  of  these  societies  advanced  to  the  west  with 
the  settlements;  at  first,  limited  to  the  region  of  the  Mohawk  and 
Genesee  rivers  in  New  York,  then  extending  to  "  New  Connecticut  " 
in  Ohio  and  reaching  Illinois  for  the  first  time  in  1812.*  The  most 
active  of  these  societies  in  western  frontier  work  was  the  Missionary 
Society  of  Connecticut  which,  with  some  help  from  the  Missionary 
Society  of  Massachusetts,  carried  on  most  of  the  work  in  Illinois  till 
the  formation  of  a  national  society  in  1826.  This  society  was  organ- 
ized June  19,  1796,  at  Hebron,  Connecticut,  at  the  regular  meeting  of 
the  General  Association  of  Connecticut,  with  the  following  consti- 
tution: f 

CONSTITUTION   OF    THE    MISSIONARY    SOCIETY   OF    CONNECTICUT. 

The  General  Association  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  impressed 
with  the  obligation  on  all  the  friends  of  Christianity  to  propagate  a 
knowledge  of  its  gracious  and  holy  doctrines,  also  encouraged  by  the 
late  zealous  exertions  for  this  end,  in  sundry  Christian  bodies,  cannot 
but  hope  the  time  is  near  in  which  God  will  spread  his  truth  through 
the  earth.  They  also  consider  it  a  thing  of  great  importance  that 
some  charitable  assistance  be  extended  to  new  Christian  settlements 
in  various  parts  of  the  United  States.  The  salvation  of  these  souls 
is  precious.  The  happiness  of  the  rising  generation  and  the  order 
and  stability  of  civil  government  are  most  effectually  advanced  by  the 


"E.  P.  Parker,  Historical  Discourse  on  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut.  (Hartford,  1898.) 
Parker,  Historical  Discourse,  13. 


8 

diffusion  of  religious  and  moral  sentiments  through  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel.  In  deep  feeling  of  these  truths,  having  by  prayer  sought 
the  direction  of  (rod,  in  the  fear  of  His  great  name,  they  have  adopted 
the  following  Constitution  of  a  Missionary  Society: 

Article  I.  This  society  shall  be  known  by  the  name  of  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety. 

Article  II.  The  General  Association  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  shall  be 
the  said  Missionary  Society. 

Article  III.  The  General  Association  shall,  annually,  by  ballot,  appoint 
twelve  trustees,  whereof  six  shall  be  clergymen  and  six  shall  be  brethren  of 
our  churches,  who  shall  conduct  the  business  of  our  society  in  the  manner 
hereinafter  prescribed. 

Article  IV.  The  object  of  this  society  shall  be  to  christianize  the  heathen 
in  North  America,  and  to  support  and  promote  Christian  knowledge  in  the 
new  settlements,  within  the  United  States;  and  both  shall  be  pursued  as  cir- 
cumstances shall  point  out,  and  as  the  trustees,  under  the  superintendence  of 
the  General  Association,  shall  direct. 

Article  V.  The  General  Association  and  the  Trustees  shall  adopt  such 
measures,  from  time  to  time,  for  raising  funds,  as  they  shall  judge  to  be  ex- 
pedient. 

Article  VI.  The  trustees  shall  have  power  to  apply  the  funds  of  the 
society,  according  to  their  discretion,  in  all  cases,  in  which  they  shall  not  be 
limited  by  the  General  Association, -or  by  the  donors.  They  shall  correspond 
with  other  missionary  societies:  shall  have  power  to  appoint  and  dismiss  mis- 
sionaries; to  pay  them;  and  generally  to  transact  all  business  necessary  to 
attain  the  ends  of  the  society;  and  shall  be  paid  their  necessary  expenses, 
but  nothing  for  their  services. 

Article  VII.  The  trustees  shall,  annually,  appoint  a  secretary,  who  shall 
keep  a  fair  account  of  the  proceedings.  They  shall  also  appoint  a  chairman, 
who,  with  four  of  the  trustees,  shall  be  a  quorum  to  transact  business:  or,  if 
the  stated  chairman  shall  not  be  present,  any  seven  of  the  trustees  shall  be  a 
quorum. 

Article  VIII.  The  chairman  shall  have  power  to  call  a  meeting  of  the 
trustees  at  his  discretion,  by  letters  left  with  them,  or  at  the  houses  of  their 
residence;  and  it  shall  be.  his  duty  to  call  such  meeting  whenever  requested  by 
any  two  of  the  trustees.  And  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  chairman,  or  of  his 
absence  from  the  State,  any  two  trustees  are  hereby  empowered  to  call  a 
meeting. 

Article  IX.  The  General  Association  shall,  annually,  appoint  a  treasurer 
and  auditor  of  accounts;  and  the  treasurer  shall  exhibit,  both  to  the  General 
Association  and  to  the  trustees,  the  state  of  the  treasury,  whenever  he  shall 
be  called  upon  for  that  purpose. 

Article  X.  The  trustees  shall,  annually,  exhibit  to  the  General  Association 
a  particular  account  of  the  missionaries  employed  by  them— of  places  to 
which  they  are  sent — of  the  missions— of  the  state  of  the  funds — of  the  re- 
ceipts and  expenditures — and  of  whatever  relating  to  this  institution  the 
General  Association  shall  require. 

Article  XI.  The  trustees,  and  all  the  officers  of  this  society,  shall  enter  on 
their  respective  offices  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  September,  annually:  and 
shall  continue  in  office  for  one  year. 

Article  XII.  The  trustees  shall  hold  their  first  meeting  at  the  State  House 
in  Hartford,  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  September  next,  at  11  o'clock  A.  M., 
and  every  year  thereafter  they  shall  meet  at  the  same  time  and  place,  unless 
otherwise  ordered  by  the  General  Association. 

Article  XIII.  If  on  experience  it  shall  be  found  necessary  to  alter  this 
constitution,  an  alteration  may  be  made  by  the  General  Association  at  their 
stated  meeting;  but  not  without  having  been  drawn  up  in  writing  and  lying 
under  consideration  one  year;  nor  unless  all  adopt  the  said  alteration. 

BENJAMIN  TRUMBULL,  Moderator. 

Passed  in  General  Association,  at  Hebron,  June  21,  1798. 

Test:     NATHAN  PERKINS.  Scribe. 


The  General  Assembly  of  the  State  granted  authority  to  ask  con- 
tributions from  the  churches  and  the  Governor  issued  an  annual  pro- 
clamation reminding  the  people  of  the  contributions  to  be  taken  on 
the  first  Sabbath  in  May,  and  exhorted  them  to  liberality  in  the  same. 
These  proclamations  were  directed  to  be  publicly  read  by  the  several 
ministers  to  their  congregations.  More  than  twenty  of  these  pro- 
clamations are  preserved  in  the  Historical  Society  in  Hartford.1- 

The  settlers  were  expected  to  co-operate  with  contributions  and 
much  responsibility  was  laid  upon  them  to  continue  the  institutions 
and  religious  customs  of  New  England.  In  1816  President  Dwight 
of  Yale  said  in  an  address  to  emigrants  from  Connecticut,  which  was 
printed  and  distributed  by  the  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut, 
''Upon  the  decision  of  a  few  depend  the  interests  of  millions  in  after- 
times.  It  devolves  upon  you  to  lay  out  the  streets  and  plant  the 
foundations  of  literature  and  religion  and  to  give  a  shape  to  the 
institutions  of  society."2- 

Too  great  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon  the  clear  apprehension  the 
founders  and  promoters  of  these  societies  had  of  the  grave  importance 
and  far  reaching  influence  of  their  labors.  The  phrase  "the  fathers 
builded  better  than  they  knew"  is  familiar,  but  it  has  been  cleverly 
and  truly  amended,  "They  often  knew  better  than  they  were  able  to 
build."  The  constitution  of  the  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut 
emphasizes  the  "propagation  of  the  gracious  and  holy  doctrines  of 
Christianity"  and  feels  this  necessary  "to  the  order  and  stability  of 
civil  government."  Those  continued  to  be  the  chief  motives  for  the 
support  of  the  society.  They  were,  however,  amplified,  and  additional 
reasons  were  pressed  upon  the  constituency  of  this  society  and  the 
larger  national  society  to  which  it  became  auxiliary  as  time  went  on. 
The  spread  of  personal  religion  and  the  growth  of  righteousness  were 
always  the  first  consideration.  On  these  it  was  felt  profoundly  that 
the  stability  of  a  self-governing  nation  depended.  It  seemed  at  times 
as  if  institutions  of  New  England's  faith  and  order  must  be  submerged 
by  the  opposing  elements  it  encountered;  but,  instead,  those  very 
elements  of  opposition  only  served  as  an  added  ground  of  appeal  for 
stronger  support.  At  first,  and  for  many  years,  the  appeal  was  simply 
to  extend  the  gospel  to  frontiers  where  irreligion  and  ignorance  pre- 
vailed. In  1835,  with  the  beginning  of  extensive  foreign  immigration, 
Dr.  Lyman  Beecher's  Plea  for  the  West  was  published,  warning  the 
friends  of  religion  and  liberty  that  Romanism  was  seeking  to  take 
possession  of  the  whole  Mississippi  valley;  and  from  this  time  on  for 
a  decade,  the  rescuing  of  the  West  from  Romanism  was  a  powerful 
plea. 

In  the  early  forties  the  rapidly  increasing  population  of  the  North- 
west brought  into  prominence  the  political  argument.  It  was  felt  that 
"Catholic  influences  would  co-operate  with  infidelity  and  native  de- 
pravity to  make  voters  and  legislators."3-  By  1842  tables  were  pre- 
pared and  presented  through  the  publications  of  the  society  to  the 
churches  of  New  England  showing  the  relative  influence  of  the  East 

1.  E.  P.  Parker,  Historical  discourse,  15. 

2.  'ibid.  20. 

3.  The  Home  Missionary,  April,  1842. 


10 

and  West  in  the  National  Legislature,  and  that  between  the  years 
1830  and  1840  the  East  had  lost  and  the  West  had  gained  in  repre- 
sentatives, urging  this  as  an  argument  for  Christian  activity  in  behalf 
of  the  new  states.  The  West,  in  this  period,  had  gained  twelve  re- 
presentatives while  the  East  had  lost  thirty,  ua  matter  of  trifling  im- 
portance if  those  men  and  the  constituents  by  whom  they  are  elected 
are  intelligent  and  virtuous."  Otherwise,  it  was  felt,  they  would  be 
men  "chosen  for  their  subservient  views  to  transient  and  party  in- 
terests whose  affinities  are  with  the  boisterous  blasphemer,  the  duelist 
and  the  assassin."  In  1845,  the  constituents  of  the  society  are  told 
with  elaborate  proofs  that  the  emigrants  who  are  flocking  to  the  West 
are  largely  paupers  and  criminals,  that  in  five  years  the  West  will 
hold  the  balance  of  power  in  Congress,  and  that  now  is  the  time  to 
affect  the  character  of  the  stranger.  In  1848,  two  addresses  were 
published  and  widely  circulated:  "The  Church  Essential  to  the  Re- 
public," by  Rev.  E.  N.  Kirk;  and  "The  Evangelization  of  the  Masses 
of  the  People  the  Only  Guarantee  of  Representative  Democracy,"  by 
John  Thompson  of  Poughkeepsie.1- 

With  a  keen  apprehension  of  coming  dangers  Horace  Bushnell 
published  in  1847  his  "Means  of  Our  Country's  Salvation."  He 
claimed  that  Vermont,  Western  New  York  and  part  of  Ohio  were 
safe.  "We  have  only  to  make  sure  of  all  the  states  this  side  of  the 
Mississippi  and  then  the  critical  point  is  past.  We  must  get  rid,  if 
possible,  of  slavery;  it  aggravates  every  bad  tendency  we  suffer.  We 
can  not,  as  American  Christians  be  at  peace  with  it  longer.  Not  for- 
getting the  moderation  that  belongs  to  every  just  course,  we  must 
lift  our  voices  against  it  and  must  not  desist  from  all  proper  means  to 
secure  its  removal,  till  the  work  is  done."2- 

These  may  be  taken  as  representative  utterances  expressing  the 
motives  used  at  different  times  to  gain  support  for  missionary  societies 
for  their  work  on  the  frontier. 

By  the  beginning*  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  method  of  sending 
out  settled  pastors  for  short  periods  had  become  inadequate  and  men 
were  employed  for  continued  service,  which  generally  took  the  form 
of  itineraries.  In  1801,  the  societies  of  New  England  and  New  York 
had  agreed  upon  a  "plan  of  union"  under  whose  provisions  missionary 
work  should  be  conducted.  This  agreement  continued  in  force  till 
1852  with  growing  dissatisfaction  to  the  two  principal  bodies  involved, 
the  Presbyterians  and  the  Congregationalists.  The  text  of  the  agree- 
ment is  as  follows: 

"  Regulations  adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian churches  in  America  and  by  the  General  Association  of  the  State 
of  Connecticut  with  a  view  to  prevent  alienation  and  promote  union 
and  harmony  in  those  new  settlements  which  are  composed  of  inhabi- 
tants from  those  bodies. 

"  First — It  is  strictly  enjoined  on  all  missionaries  to  the  new  settle- 
ments to  endeavor  by  all  proper  means  to  promote  mutual  forbear- 

1.  Home  Missionary,  April,  1842;  March,  1845;  September,  1847;  May,  1848. 

2.  The  Home  Missionary,  November,  1847. 


11 

ance  and  accommodation,  between  those  inhabitants  of  the  new 
settlements  who  hold  the  Presbyterian  and  those  who  hold  the  Con- 
gregational form  of  church  government. 

Second — If  in  the  new  settlements  any  church  of  the  Congrega- 
tional order  shall  settle  a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  order,  that 
church  may,  if  they  choose,  still  conduct  their  discipline  according  to 
Congregational  principles,  settling  their  difficulties  among  themselves 
or  by  a  council  mutually  agreed  upon  for  that  purpose.  But  if  any 
difficulty  shall  exist  between  the  minister  and  the  church,  or  any 
member  of  it,  it  shall  be  referred  to  the  Presbytery  to  which  the 
minister  shall  belong,  provided  both  parties  agree  to  it;  if  not,  to  a 
council  consisting  of  an  equal  number  of  Presbyterians  and  Congre- 
gationalists  agreed  upon  by  both  parties. 

Third — If  a  Presbyterian  church  shall  settle  a  minister  of  Congre- 
gational principles,  that  church  may  still  conduct  their  discipline 
according  to  Presbyterian  principles,  excepting  that  if  a  difficulty 
arise  between  him  and  his  church,  or  any  member  of  it,  the  cause 
shall  be  tried  by  the  association  to  which  the  said  minister  shall 
belong,  provided  both  parties  shall  agree  to  it;  otherwise,  by  a  coun- 
cil, one-half  Congregational  and  the  other  half  Presbyterian,  mutu- 
ally agreed  upon  by  the  parties. 

Fourth — If  any  congregation  consist  partly  of  those  who  hold  the 
Congregational  form  of  discipline  and  partly  of  those  who  hold  the 
Presbyterian  form,  we  recommend  to  both  parties  that  this  be  no 
obstruction  to  their  uniting  in  one  church  and  settling  a  minister  and 
that  in  this  case  the  church  choose  a  standing  committee  from  the 
communicants  of  said  church,  whose  business  it  shall  be  to  call  to 
account  every  member  of  the  church  who  shall  conduct  himself  in- 
consistently with  the  laws  of  Christianity  and  to  give  judgment  on 
such  conduct;  and  if  the  person  condemned  by  their  judgment  be  a 
Presbyterian,  he  shall  have  liberty  to  appeal  to  the  Presbytery;  if  a 
Congregationalist,  he  shall  have  liberty  to  appeal  to  the  body  of  the 
male  communicants  of  the  church.  In  the  former  case  the  determi- 
nation of  the  Presbytery  shall  be  final,  unless  the  church  consent  to 
a  further  appeal  to  the  Synod  or  to  General  Assembly;  and  in  the 
latter  case,  if  the  party  condemned  shall  wish  for  a  trial  by  a  mutual 
council,  the  cause  shall  be  referred  to  such  council,  and.  provided  the 
said  standing  committee  of  any  church  shall  depute  one  of  themselves 
to  attend  the  presbytery,  he  may  have  the  same  right  to  sit  and  act 
in  the  Presbytery  as  a  ruling  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  church."* 

The  originator  of  this  "  plan  "  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  younger 
Edwards.  It  was  adopted  by  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut 
and  proposed  by  that  body  to  the  General  Assembly. f 

*  American  Church  History,  Series  VI.  353. 

t  J.  B.  Clark,  Leavening  the  Nation  (New  York,  1903,)  38. 


12 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  FIRST  MISSIONARY  TOURS  TO  ILLINOIS. 


Under  the  auspices  of  the  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut,,  with 
some  help  from  the  Missionary  Society  of  Massachusetts,  and  in 
accord  with  the  terms  of  the  "Plan  of  Union,"  the  first  of  these  New 
England  missionaries  visited  Illinois  in  1812.  Illinois  was  then  the 
extreme  frontier  of  the  United  States.*  In  fact,  but  a  small  part  of 
what  is  now  Illinois  was  then  open  to  settlers,  only  a  narrow  strip 
along  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  the  trading  post  at 
St.  Louis.  The  main  attractions  to  settlers  were  the  salt  works  about 
Shawneetown  and  what  little  business  was  doing  about  the  seat  of 
government  at  Kaskaskia.  The  soldiers  of  George  Rogers  Clark 
were  followed  by  settlers  from  Virginia,  the  Carolinas  and  Kentucky. 
They  had  with  them  Methodist  and  Baptist  ministers,  generally  igno- 
rant and  prejudiced,  whatever  their  native  ability  may  have  been. 
To  these  people  were  sent  out  the  first  missionaries  from  the  east,  a 
notable  event  both  on  account  of  the  aim  of  the  expedition  and  be- 
cause of  the  character  of  its  leader. 

This  leader  was  Samuel  J.  Mills,  who  was  born  in  Litchfield  county, 
Connecticut,  in  1783,  that  county  particularly  distinguished  for  the 
religious  leaders  it  has  given  to  the  country.  Mr.  Mills'  father  was  a 
Congregational  minister.  He  was  himself  educated  at  Williams1  Col- 
lege and  Andover  Theological  Seminary  and  was  resident  graduate 
for  a  few  months  at  Yale.  He  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  at  New- 
buryport,  Massachusetts,  the  stronghold  of  Presbyterianism  in  New 
England.  He  died  June  16,  1816,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five;  yet  in 
this  comparatively  short  life  he  accomplished  an  amazing  amount  of 
work  of  a  wonderfully  broad  quality  and  work  that  has  touched 
national  life  in  many  ways.  During  his  college  and  seminary  days 
he  was  living  through  those  experiences  that  filled  him  with  a  burn- 
ing zeal  for  the  extension  of  Christianity  to  foreign  lands  He  was 
one  of  four  to  take  the  initial  steps  in  the  formation  of  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions.  At  the  time  of  his 
death,  parties  of  missionaries  had  gone  to  India.  Ceylon,  to  the  Cher- 
okee and  Choctaw  Indians  and  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  many  of 
them  personally  influenced  by  him  to  this  work.f 

*See  map  in  McMaster,  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  IV. 
t  Gardiner  Spring,  Memoir  of  Samuel  J.  Mills  (New  York,  1820). 


13 

With  this  work  under  way  he  turned  his  attention  to  "  Domestic 
Missions,"  as  the  phrase  was  then,  and,  from  1812  to  1815,  undertook 
two  tours  through  the  West  and  Southwest.  The  first  trip  was  under 
the  joint  patronage  of  the  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  societies, 
and  he  had  as  companion  Rev.  J.  F.  Schermerhorn  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed church.  The  second  trip  of  1814  was  under  the  patronage  of 
the  Connecticut  society,  with  the  aid  of  Bibles  and  tracts  from  the 
Philadelphia  Bible  Society.  The  purpose  of  the  trip,  in  the  words 
of  Ellis'  biographer,  Gardiner  Spring,  was  ''to  preach  the  gospel  to 
the  destitute,  to  explore  the  country  and  learn  its  moral  and  religious 
state  and  to  promote  the  establishment  of  Bible  societies  and  other 
religious  and  charitable  institutions."  The  plan  of  the  first  trip  was 
to  separate  in  journeying  through  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  unite 
at  Marietta,  Ohio,  go  down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans,  thence 
across  the  Mississippi  Territory,  returning  by  way  of  the  western 
parts  of  Georgia,  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia;  this  plan  was  carried 
out. 

It  was  Mr.  Mills'  custom  to  keep  a  diary  and  on  the  return  he  and 
Mr.  Schermerhorn  made  full  report  to  the  societies.  On  the  first 
page  of  Mr.  Mills'  journal  are  found  the  following  subjects  of  inquiry: 

1.  Are  the  people  supplied  with  Bibles  and  tracts? 

2.  How  many  Bibles  are  wanted  in  a  community  or  a  town? 

3.  Have  supplies  of  Bibles  and  tracts  been  received  in  part? 

4.  From  what  societies  may  supplies  be  expected? 

5.  The  number  of  regular  clergy  in  each  county? 

6.  The  number  of  towns  able  and  willing  to  support  ministers? 

7.  Ascertain,  as  far  as  may  be,  the  most  hopeful  fields  for  mission- 
ary labor. 

8.  Whence  did  the  people  originate? 

9.  An  institution  for  the  benefit  of  the  Africans. 

Of  the  Northwest  Territory  Mr.  Mills  says:  "  South  of  New  Con- 
necticut, few  Bibles  or  religious  tracts  have  been  received  for  distri- 
bution among  the  inhabitants.  The  Sabbath  is  greatly  profaned, 
and  but  few  good  people  can  be  found  in  any  one  place."  Of  the 
people  on  either  side  of  the  Ohio  river,  he  says:  "  We  found  the 
inhabitants  in  a  very  destitute  state,  very  ignorant  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  Gospel  and  in  many  instances  without  Bibles  or  any  other  re- 
ligious books.  The  Methodist  ministers  pass  through  this  country 
in  their  circuits  occasionally.  There  are  a  number  of  good  people  in 
the  Territory  who  are  anxious  to  have  Presbyterian  ministers  among 
them."  Introduced  by  Dr.  Gideon  Blackburn  in  Tennessee  to  Gen- 
eral Jackson,  who  was  just  starting  for  Natchez  with  1,500  volunteers, 
the  two  missionaries  were  his  guests  down  the  river. 

In  the  report  to  the  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  societies,*  Mr. 
Mills  gives  the  results  of  his  investigations  in  regard  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  Bibles  while  Mr.  Schermerhorn  makes  the  more  general 
report.  The  following  is  the  report  as  to  Illinois :  "  The  settlements 
in  this  territory  are  very  small  and  are  much  scattered.  Those  on 


*  A  Correct  Vie-w  of  That  Part  of  the  United  States  Which  Lies  West  of  the  AUeghany  Moun- 
tains -with  Regard  to  Religion  and  Morals  (Hartford,  1814). 


14 

the  Ohio  are  few,  except  the  Saline  and  Shawneetown,  and  about 
Kaskaskias  on  the  Mississippi  at  the  American  bottom.  This  country 
is  delightfully  situated  as  to  climate  and  is  almost  a  continual  prairieT 
interspersed  with  copses  of  wood  from  Vincennes  to  St.  Louis.  From 
a  survey  of  a  road  between  these  places,  lately  made,  it  appears  that 
for  this  distance  of  150  miles,  the  country  is  for  every  half  mile  or 
mile  alternately  prairie  and  open  wood  land.  The  American  bottom 
is  said  to  be  the  finest  body  of  land  to  be  found  in  the  western  coun- 
try. This  territory  has  only  two  counties  at  present,  Randolph 
containing  7,275  inhabitants,  embracing  the  settlements  on  the  Ohio 
and  Kaskaskias,  and  St.  Clair  5,007,  embracing  the  settlements  oppo- 
site St.  Louis  and  Missouri  on  the  upper  settlements.  Of  this  county, 
Cahokia  is  the  county  town.  In  this  whole  territory  is  not  a  solitary 
Presbyterian  minister,  though  there  are  several  families  of  this  de- 
nomination in  different  settlements.  At  Kaskaskias  they  are  anxious 
to  obtain  a  Presbyterian  minister  of  proper  character  and  talents  who 
would  be  willing  to  take  the  charge  of  an  academy.  The  Baptists 
have  four  or  five  small  churches  consisting  of  not  more  than  120 
members.  The  Methodists  have  five  itinerants,  besides  some  local 
preachers,  and  perhaps  600  members  in  their  society.  This  country 
was  rapidly  settled  before  the  war  and  should  peace  be  restored,  will 
greatly  increase  in  population  and  ought  to  receive  early  attention 
from  Missionary  bodies." 

Mr.  Mills  urged  the  appointment  of  a  missionary  to  St.  Louis,  and 
Salmon  Giddings  was  appointed  by  the  Connecticut  society.  The 
report  from  which  these  extracts  are  taken  stirred  all  New  England 
and  even  interested  philanthropists  abroad  and  led  to  the  speedy 
formation  of  the  American  Bible  Society. 

In  1814,  Mr.  Mills  started  on  a  second  tour  to  the  west,  accompa- 
nied by  Rev.  Daniel  Smith.  Filled  with  enthusiasm  for  the  distribu- 
tion of  Bibles,  he  wrote:  "At  Shawneetown  we  saw  Judge  GriswoldT 
formerly  from  Connecticut.  He  favored  us  with  letters  of  introduc- 
tion to  Governor  Edwards  and  other  gentlemen  at  Kaskaskias.  The 
Governor  has  promised  to  patronize  the  society  should  one  be  formed. 
This  Territory  is  deplorably  destitute  of  Bibles.  In  Kaskaskias,  a 
place  containing  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  families,  there  are,  it  is 
thought,  not  more  than  four  or  five."  In  a  letter  addressed  to  Jere- 
miah Evarts,  and  dated  at  Shawneetown,  January  12, 1815,  he  reports 
a  second  interview  with  Governor  Edwards  on  the  subject  of  a  Bible 
Society  and  the  continued  encouragement  he  received  from  him. 

From  his  observations  on  this  trip  he  reported  the  population  of 
Illinois  at  15,000,  retarded  in  growth  by  the  hostilities  of  neighboring 
savages.  "  Until  the  last  summer,  titles  of  land  could  not  be  obtained 
in  this  territory.  But  now  land  offices  are  opened,  as  some  portions  of 
the  country  are  extremely  fertile  it  is  probable  that  settlers  will  begin 
to  flock  in,  especially  if  the  war  should  soon  terminate."  He  reports 
the  Eastern  settlements  as  extensive,  reaching  thirty  miles  up  the 
Wabash  and  forty  down  the  Ohio.  Many  people  are  employed  at  the 
United  States  Saline  works  where  salt,  to  the  amount  of  8,600  bush- 
els, is  produced  each  week.  "  Shawneetown  is  the  seat  of  justice.  It 


15     . 

contains  about  100  houses,  situated  on  the  Ohio,  subject  to  be  over- 
flowed at  high  water.  But  it  is  continually  deluged  like  most  other 
towns  in  the  territory  by  a  far  worse  flood  of  impiety  and  iniquity." 
"  Kaskaskias  is  the  key  to  the  western  settlements  and  must,  there- 
fore, become  a  place  of  much  importance,  although  at  present  it  does 
not  greatly  flourish.  It  contains  between  eighty  and  one  hundred 
families,  two-thirds  French  Catholics.  Governor  Edwards  assured 
us  that  a  preacher  of  popular  talents  would  receive  a  salary  of  $1,000 
per  annum  for  preaching  a  part  of  the  time  and  instructing  a  small 
school." 

The  development  of  St.  Louis  meant  much  to  Illinois,  particularly 
to  the  western  settlements.  Mr.  Mills  wrote:  "  St.  Louis  has  a  pop- 
ulation of  2,000,  one-third  Americans;  the  rest  French  Catholics. 
The  American  families  are,  many  of  them,  genteel  and  well  informed; 
but  very  few  of  them  religious.  When  we  told  them  that  a  mission- 
ary had  been  appointed  to  that  station  by  the  Connecticut  Missionary 
Society,  they  received  the  information  with  joy.  The  most  respecta- 
ble people  in  town  assured  us  that  a  young  man  of  talents,  piety  and 
liberality  of  mind  would  receive  an  abundant  support;  $1,200  or 
$1,400  a  year  might  be  relied  on  by  such  a  man  if  he  would  teach  a 
school  and  preach  but  a  part  of  his  time.  When  we  consider  the 
present  situation  of  St.  Louis  and  the  high  probability  that  it  will 
become  a  flourishing  commercial  town,  we  cannot  but  desire  that  the 
person  already  appointed  may  speedily  be  sent.  No  place  in  the 
Western  country,  New  Orleans  excepted,  has  greater  natural  advan- 
tages." 

The  general  conclusions  on  the  religious  situation  in  the  regions 
visited  were,  as  follows:  "The  character  of  the  settlers  is  such  as 
to  render  it  peculiarly  important  that  missionaries  should  early  be 
sent  among  them.  Indeed,  they  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  a  char- 
acter, assembled  as  they  are  from  every  state  in  the  Union,  and  origi- 
nally from  almost  every  nation  in  Europe.  The  majority,  although 
by  no  means  regardless  of  religion,  have  not  yet  embraced  any  fixed 
principles  respecting  it.  They  are  ready  to  receive  any  impressions 
which  a  public  speaker  may  attempt  to  make.  Hence,  every  species 
of  heretics  in  the  country  flock  to  the  new  settlements.  Hence,  also 
the  Baptist  and  Methodist  denominations  are  exerting  themselves  to 
gain  a  footing  in  the  territory.  Some  portions  of  this  country  are 
pretty  thoroughly  supplied  with  their  preachers.  Why,  then,  it  may 
be  asked,  should  we  not  leave  it  wholly  to  them?  We  answer,  the 
field  is  large  enough  for  us  all.  Many  of  their  preachers  are  exceed- 
ingly illiterate.  We  have  mentioned  a  number  of  places  in  which  an 
earnest  desire  was  manifested  to  have  missionaries  sent  among  them. 
This  was  not  the  desire  of  a  few  individual  Presbyterians  merely,  but 
of  many  of  the  officers  in  the  civil  government  of  the  Territories  and 
some  of  the  most  respectable  citizens  of  various  denominations.  The 
three  Governors  and  a  number  of  judges  in  the  respective  Territo- 
ries expressed  to  us  their  feeling  upon  the  subject.  Governor 
Edwards,  of  Illinois,  has  been  for  some  time  endeavoring  to  obtain  a 


16 

Presoyterian  preacher  there,  and  Governor  Posy,  of  Indiana,  pro- 
posed himself  to  write  to  some  missionary  society  to  obtain  one  for 
his  neighborhood." 

A  final  communication  was  directed  to  the  society  after  they  had 
returned.  "  Ever  since  we  came  back  to  this  land  of  Christian  privi- 
leges, we  have  been  endeavoring  to  arouse  the  attention  of  the  public 
and  to  direct  it  toward  the  West.  These  exertions  have  been  stimu- 
lated by  a  deep  conviction  of  deplorable  state  of  the  country.  Never 
will  the  impression  be  erased  from  our  hearts  that  has  been  made  by 
beholding  those  scenes  of  wide-spreading  desolation.  The  whole 
country  from  Lake  Erie  to  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  as  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death.  This  vast  country  contains  more  than  a  million  of 
inhabitants.  Their  number  is  every  year  increased  by  a  mighty  flood 
of  emigration." 

We  have  noticed  that  one  subject  of  inquiry  with  Mr.  Mills  was  to 
be  some  method  of  improving  the  condition  of  the  Africans.  Col- 
onization schemes  were  then  occupying  the  attention  of  the  philan- 
thropic. England  had  founded  her  colony  of  Sierra  Leone  in  1792, 
and  this  method  of  dealing  with  a  question,  which  troubled  many 
conciences,  seemed  to  win  the  support  of  both  Northerners  and 
Southerners.  Mills'  biographer  says  that,  while  in  the  southern 
states,  he  collected  facts  respecting  the  condition  of  "his  poor  African 
brethren."  In  the  western  states  he  was  endeavoring  to  arouse  the 
attention  of  the  charitable  and  influential,  because  he  conceived  that 
their  weight  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  and  their  pecuniary  aid 
might  be  afterwards  wanted.  In  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois  he  la- 
bored much  to  procure  the  grant  of  a  township  of  land,  on  which  a 
small  colony  might  be  established,  both  for  the  purpose  of  making 
the  experiment  and  evincing  the  utility  of  such  attempts,  and,  more 
particularly,  to  prepare  a  number  of  persons  to  take  the  lead  in  some 
more  enlarged  establishment  of  Liberia  as  a  free  colony  for  negroes 
on  the  coast  of  Africa. 


17 


CHAPTEK   IV. 


1812-1826.  BEGINNINGS  OF  MISSIONARY  WORK. 
THE  ANDOVER  PERIOD. 


The  main  result  of  these  tours  for  Illinois,  outside  the  interest 
aroused  in  its  condition,  was  in  the  securing  the  appointment  of  Sal- 
mon Giddings  to  St.  Louis.  He  was  a  native  of  Hartford,  Connecti- 
cut, brother  of  the  famous  anti-slavery  leader,  Joshua  Giddings,  of 
Ohio.  He  received  his  education  at  Williams'  College  and  Andover 
Seminary.1  Contemporary  notices  show  that  Connecticut  felt  she  was 
giving  her  best  in  sending  him  to  the  frontier.  He  was  sent  out  as 
a  missionary  to  "vacant  settlements"  and  authorized  to  preach 
statedly  in  any  particular  place  for  such  a  portion  of  the  time  as  the 
people  should  see  fit  to  employ  him  at  their  own  expense.2  When 
he  reached  St.  Louis  he  picked  up  a  newspaper  published  in  that 
city,  in  which  he  found  an  article  headed  "  Caution."  The  public 
were  informed  that  a  society  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  was  about  to 
send  missionaries  to  that  region  and  the  citizens  should  be  on  their 
guard.  He  won  his  way,  however,  into  the  confidence  of  the  people. 
He  was  active  in  making  trips  as  far  and  as  often  as  he  could 
and  keeping  the  East  informed  of  the  religious  condition  of  the  fron- 
tier.3 He  took  the  settled  region  under  his  care,  and  to  the  time  of 
his  death,  in  1828,  was  the  founder  and  overseer  of  its  churches.  Of 
some  twenty  churches,  eight  were  in  Illinois,  located  at  Kaskaskias, 
Shoal  Creek,  Lebanon,  Belleville,  McCord's  Settlement,  Turkey  Hill, 
Collinsville  and  Edwardsville.4  The  first  of  these  Illinois  churches 
was  at  Belleville,  founded  August,  1816.  The  Missionary  Society  of 
Connecticut  was  called  on  to  supply  these  churches  with  ministers, 
and  to  some  extent  did  so.  A  number  of  men  were  sent  out  with 
commissions  in  rather  general  terms  like  that  of  Salmon  Giddings. 
They  were  commissioned  to  Indiana  and  Illinois,  to  Illinois  and  Mis- 
souri, to  regions  "West  of  the  Alleghanies."  Sylvester  Lamed,  com- 
missioned to  New  Orleans,  preached  at  settlements  in  the  Northwest 
on  his  way.  David  Tenney,  of  Harvard  College  and  Andover  Semi- 
nary, went  to  Shoal  Creek  in  1818  and  died  there  the  following  year. 
John  Milcot  Ellis,  educated  at  Dartmouth  and  Andover,  was  sent  to 

1  M.  K.  Whittlesey,  The  Record  of  Fifty  Years,  (Historical  Papers.    Ottawa,  1894). 

2  T.  Lippincott,  in  Home  Missionary,  August,  1846. 

3  The  Panoplist. 

4  J   E.  Roy,  Fifty  Years  of  Home  Missions  (Hist.  Papers.    Ottawa,  1894). 

2—  H 


18 

Kaskaskias,  and  lived  to  accomplish  a  great  work  for  Illinois.  Mills, 
Giddings,  Tenney  and  Ellis  were  all  from  Andover,  the  fruit  of  An- 
dover's  missionary  enthusiasm,  so  conspicuous  in  the  first  part  of  the 
century.1 

Most  of  the  men  sent  out  by  the  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut 
up  to  1826,  were  transients,  so  far  as  Illinois  was  concerned.  In  1826, 
the  year  of  the  founding  of  the  National  Society,  E.  G.  Howe  was  at 
Diamond  Grove.  Thomas  Lippincott  was  commissioned  as  mission- 
ary in  1829,  although  he  had  come  to  St.  Louis  from  Connecticut  as 
early  as  1817  and  removed  to  Illinois  in  1818.  Besides  these  com- 
missioned missionaries,  who  were  permanently  at  work  in  Illinois  by 
the  year  1826,  there  were  few  resident  New  Eriglanders.  Mills  men- 
tioned Judge  Griswold,  of  Connecticut,  in  Shawneetown  in  1815.  In 
1817,  the  Collins  brothers  came  from  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  from- 
Lyman  Beecher's  church.  Later  other  members  of  the  family  joined 
them.  They  established  themselves  opposite  St.  Louis.  They  were 
energetic,  prosperous  people,  establishing  tan  yard,  lumber  mill,  farm, 
store,  distillery,  and  running  a  steamboat  on  the  Mississippi.  They 
were  strong  in  principle  as  well  as  energy  and  gave  up  their  distil- 
lery when  Lyman  Beecher's  great  temperance  sermon  convinced 
them  of  the  wrong  of  it. 

One  sister  married  Salmon  Giddings,  and  as  a  family  they  marked 
not  only  the  geography  of  that  part  of  Illinois  with  its  Collinsville 
and  Lebanon,  named  after  the  Litchneld  county  town  of  that  name, 
but  also  had  a  strong  influence  on  the  religious  and  political  history 
of  the  State.2 

The  year  1826  brought  a  change  in  missionary  method.  The 
American  Home  Missionary  Society  was  founded,  surely  needed  to 
avoid  the  conflicts  of  the  New  England,  New  York,  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania  societies.  The  policy  of  sending  itinerants  was 
dropped.  Hereafter,  men  were  appointed  to  definite  places  and  a 
more  stable  work  begun. 

1  J.  E.  Roy,  Fifty   Years  of  Home  Missions  (Hist.  Papers,  Ottawa,  1894) ;    Andover  Obituary 
Record. 

2  W.  H.  Collins,  Congregationalists  of  Western  Illinois  (Hist.  Papers.    Ottawa,  1894). 


19 


CHAPTER  V. 


1826-1833.     THE  YALE  PERIOD. 


A  second  period  of  New  England  missionary  activity  may  well 
include  the  years  between  1826  and  1833,  when  the  close  of  the 
Black  Hawk  War  opened  the  northern  part  of  the  State  to  'settle- 
ment and  New  Englanders  began  to  come  in,  in  large  numbers,  and 
demand  churches  like  those  they  had  left.  Till  that  time,  the  relig- 
ious efforts  of  New  England  for  the  frontier  were  directed  toward  a 
population  with  social  customs  and  religious  ideas  different  from 
her  own. 

The  new  society  assumed  Ellis  and  Howe  as  its  missionaries;  and, 
in  the  years  that  immediately  followed,  commissioned  Solomon  Hardy, 
of  Andover,  to  Shoal  Creek;  J.  G.  Bergen,  of  New  Jersey,  to  Spring- 
field; John  Matthews,  to  Kaskaskias;  Cyrus  Watson,  of  Connecticut, 
to  Edwardsville,  and  Aratus  Kent,  of  Connecticut,  to  Galena.1  Mean- 
while, Stephen  Bliss,  of  New  Hampshire,  had  been  adopted  as  pastor 
by  the  church  founded  in  Edwards  county  by  a  New  England  colony 
coming  by  way  of  West  Virginia;2  commissioned  by  the  society,  he 
was,  by  1829,  urging  missionaries  for  Wayne,  White,  Gallatin  and 
Pope  counties.3 

As  the  religious  work  for  Illinois  up  to  1826  had  emanated  so 
largely  from  Andover,  so  the  period  now  contemplated  was  enriched 
by  a  strong  religious  movement,  arising  from  Yale  College  and  yet  in 
direct  line  of  succession  to  the  Andover  movement,  through  the  efforts 
of  John  Milcot  Ellis.  When  he  was  ordained  in  the  Old  South 
church  in  Boston,  in  1825,  the  charge  contained  the  instructions, 
that  he  was  "  to  build  up  an  institution  of  learning  which  shall  bless 
the  West  for  all  time." 4  He  was  located  at  Kaskaskia  from  1825  to 
1828,  and  in  1828  he  undertook,  for  the  society,  a  trip  through  the 
"  upper  counties,"  visiting  Edwardsville,  Carrollton,  Jacksonville  and 
Springfield.  All  the  time  he  had  in  mind  a  desirable  location  for  the 
school  he  had  been  charged  to  found. 

1  Roy,  Fifty  Years  of  Home  Missions  (Hist.  Papers,    Ottawa,  1894). 

2  G.  R.  Parrish,  History  of  Congregational  Association  of  Southern  Illinois  (Chicago,  1892). 

3  Home  Missionary,  1892. 

4  Roy,  Fifty  Yeats  of  Home  Missions. 


20 

Jacksonville  particularly  pleased  him,  the  church  had  grown  rap- 
idly and  desired  him  as  pastor.  It  seemed  the  most  promising  part 
of  the  State.  Rewrote:  "  Sangamon,  Morgan  and  Green  counties 
are  taking  the  lead  in  this  state.  This  is  that  part  of  Illinois  which 
now  is,  and,  from  all  appearances,  is  destined  to  be  the  most  populous 
and  wealthy.  It  is  even  proverbial  that  it  possesses  a  rare  combina- 
tion of  beauty  of  prospect,  richness  of  soil  and  salubrity  of  climate. 
A  spirit  of  industry  and  enterprise  is  found  in  these  counties,  not  to 
be  found  in  this  state  or  elsewhere  nor  in  Missouri.  Many  English 
farmers,  and  many  from  New  England  and  New  York,  are  effecting  a 
happy  state  of  agricultural  improvement.  No  country  can  exceed 
this  for  farming.  Common  crops  of  corn  yield  fifty  to  seventy-five 
bushels  per  acre;  wheat,  of  the  best  quality,  too,  twenty-five  bushels 
per  acre,  thirty-five  not  uncommon.  Through  this  flourishing  coun- 
try flows  the  Illinois  river,  admitted  to  be  without  a  rival  in  beauty 
and  excellence  of  navigation.  The  market  on  the  Illinois  was  opened 
the  present  year  by  steam.  Eight  or  ten  steamboats  have  already 
visited  the  Morgan  landing  since  the  spring  and  more  are  expected." 

Mr.  Ellis  made  this  trip  in  the  spring  of  1828.  By  September  he 
had  removed  to  Jacksonville  and  had  secured  between  two  and  three 
thousand  dollars  for  his  "  seminary  of  learning."  The  half-quarter 
section  purchased  for  its  location  he  described  as  "  the  most  beautiful 
spot  I  have  ever  seen."  John  Ellis,  with  Thomas  Lippincott,  had 
been  appointed  as  an  educational  committee  by  the  Presbytery  of 
Missouri,  which  then  included  Illinois.  They  had  asked  aid  from  the 
Presbytery  for  the  Jacksonville  school,  but  were  refused,  and  had 
then  raised  the  money  mentioned  above  by  circulating  an  "  outline  " 
through  Bond,  Sangamon  and  Morgan  counties.1 

In  the  early  part  of  1829.  the  "  Illinois  Association "  had  been 
formed  at  Yale  College.  Mr.  Theron  Baldwin  read,  in  December, 
1828,  an  essay  before  the  Society  of  Inquiry,  at  Yale,  on  Individual 
Effort  in  the  Cause  of  Christ.  It  stirred  Mr.  Mason  Grosvenor  to 
thoughts  of  immediate  activity  and  to  the  idea  of  an  association  of 
young  men  of  like  mind,  to  such  an  end.  He  talked  with  other  young 
men  in  the  college  and  theological  seminary  suggesting  the  formation 
of  an  association  whose  members  should  pledge  themselves  to  go 
West  as  home  missionaries,  to  locate  near  each  other  for  mutual  ad- 
vice and  encouragement  and  to  found  a  college;  in  short,  to  give 
themselves  to  the  development  of  the  frontier.2  Just  at  this  time 
they  read  in  the  "  Home  Missionary  "  of  Mr.  Ellis'  plan  for  a  semi- 
nary of  learning  at  Jacksonville.  Mr.  Grosvenor  immediately  wrote 
him,  told  him  of  the  suggested  Yale  organization,  and  suggested  that 
the  two  projects  might  be  combined.  When  his  answer  was  received, 
after  the  two  months  it  took  for  a  letter  to  reach  Illinois  and  its 
answer  to  return,  it  proved  so  satisfactory  that  the  organization  was 
at  once  completed  with  the  following  compact:3 

1  Home  Missionary.  August,  1828;  September,  1828;  May,  1830.    Historic  Morgan  and  Classic 
Jacksonville 

2  Samuel  Willard,  Memorial  of  the  Life  and  Work  of  Dr.  J.  M.  Sturtevant  (Illinois  School 
Report,  1885-86),  98. 

3  Julian  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography  (Fleming  H   Revell  &  Co.    1896),  138. 


21 

"  Believing-  in  the  entire  alienation  of  the  natural  heart  from  God,  in  the 
necessity  of  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  its  renovation,  and  that 
these  influences  are  not  to  be  expected  without  the  use  of  means ;  deeply  im- 
pressed, also,  with  the  destitute  condition  of  the  Western  section  of  our 
country  and  the  urgent  claims  of  its  inhabitants  upon  the  benevolent  at  the 
East,  and  in  view  of  the  fearful  crisis  evidently  approaching,  and  which  we 
believe  can  only  be  averted  by  speedy  and  energetic  measures  on  the  part  of 
the  friends  of  religio?i  and  literature  in  the  older  States  ;  and,  believing  that 
evangelical  religion  and  education  must  go  hand  in  hand  to  the  successful 
accomplishment  of  this  desirable  object — we,  the  undersigned,  hereby  express 
our  readiness  to  go  to  the  State  of  Illinois  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a 
seminary  of  learning,  such  as  shall  be  best  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  that 
country,  a  part  of  us  to  engage  in  instruction  in  the  Seminary,  the  others  to 
occupy,  as  preachers,  important  stations  in  the  surrounding  country,  provided 
the  undertaking  be  deemed  practicable  and  the  location  approved;  and  pro- 
vided, also,  the  providence  of  God  permit  us  to  engage  in  it. 

Signed — THEKON  BALDWIN,  WILLIAM  KIRBY, 

JOHN  F.  BROOKS,  JULIAN  M.  STURTEVANT, 

MASON  GROSVENOR,       ASA  TURNER, 
ELISHA  JENNEY, 
Theological  Department,  Yale  College,  Feb.  21,  1829." 

This  was  the  first  "  band  "  of  the  kind  to  take  to  itself  a  particular 
field  of  effort  Five  other  men  joined  the  "association"  later  from 
Yale  and  Andover.  Their  first  effort  was  to  start  a  subscription  for 
Illinois  College ;  Jeremiah  Day,  President  of  Yale  College,  and  other 
professors,  approved  the  plan  and  gave  their  aid  in  raising  $10,000  to 
help  in  the  work.  The  institution  was  to  be  controlled  by  ten  trus- 
tees, seven  of  whom  were  to  be  the  men  who  had  signed  the  compact 
of  the  association,  while  the  remaining  three  were  to  be  elected  by 
the  Illinois  subscribers.  The  plan  was  submitted  to  the  American 
Home  Missionary  Society,  which  pledged  its  endorsement  and  coun- 
tenance to  the  educational  plans  and  agreed  to  send  the  men  to  Illinois 
and  provide  their  support  so  far  as  necessary.1 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  original  gift  of  $10,000  was  by  no  means 
the  end  of  Eastern  giving  to  Illinois  College.  For  several  years  it 
was  almost  entirely  dependent  on  the  gifts  of  Eastern  friends,  and 
later  often  sent  some  representative  of  the  college,  President  Beecher, 
Mr.  Baldwin  or  Mr.  Sturtevant,  to  gather  funds  in  New  England. 

In  September,  1829,  the  association  sent  J.  M.  Sturtevant  and  The- 
ron  Baldwin  to  Illinois  to  complete  arrangements  for  combining  the 
two  enterprises.  They  brought  with  them  the  promise  of  the  $10,000, 
and,  on  December  18,  1829,  an  agreement  was  concluded  between  the 
original  stockholders  and  the  "  Illinois  Association  of  Yale  College." 
The  stockholders  voted  their  confidence  in  their  new  eastern  members, 
thanking  them  and  J.  M.  Ellis  and  the  non-resident  contributors. 
The  new  college  opened  its  doors  January  4,  1830,  with  nine  students 
and  J.  M.  Sturtevant  as  chief  instructor. 

Without  dwelling  here  on  the  influence  of  this  college  on  the  de- 
velopment of  Illinois,  we  will  notice  a  little  further  the  work  of  the 
"  Yale  Band  "  for  this  state.  While  the  interests  of  these  theological 
students  was  always  so  strong  in  Illinois  College  as  to  serve  as  a  bond 
between  them  and  a  place  where  they  might  sometimes  meet,  their 
lives  for  the  most  part  were  devoted  to  other  regions  in  Illinois  and 

1  Julian  M.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  139-141. 


22 

other  interests.  It  was  an  advantage  for  Illinois,  not  to  be  calcu- 
lated, that  so  early  in  her  history  men  of  broad  education  and  an 
interest  in  the  broadest  and  best  development  in  the  state  should 
have  devoted  themselves  to  her  interests.1  It  is  fitting  to  record  these 
names  with  some  brief  account  of  their  labors. 

The  seven  men  who  formed  the  original  association  were  Mason 
Grosvenor,  Theron  Baldwin,  John  F.  Brooks,  Elisha  Jenney,  William 
Kirby,  Asa  Turner  and  Julian  M.  Sturtevant.  Those  who  joined 
later  were  Romulus  Barnes,  William  Carter,  Flavel  Bascom,  Albert 
Hale  and  Lucien  Farnham. 

Mason  Grosvenor2  was  born  in  Pomfret,  Connecticut,  September 
13,  1800.  He  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1827,  and  studied  three 
years  at  the  Divinity  School.  He  was  the  prime  mover  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  "  Yale  Band  "  and  took  an  active  part  in  raising  funds 
for  Illinois  College;  but  he  was  prevented  by  ill-health  from  going 
to  Illinois  till  1853,  when  he  became  for  some  time  a  teacher  in 
Illinois  College. 

Theron  Baldwin 3  was  born  in  Goshen,  Litch field  county,  Connecti- 
cut, in  1801.  He  graduated  from  Yale  in  1827.  studied  two  years  in 
the  Divinity  School,  and  went  to  Illinois  in  1829.  He  was  a  trustee 
of  Illinois  College  till  his  death,  and  always  active  in  its  interests. 
He  was  pastor  at  Vandalia  and  Godfrey,  where  he  organized  and  con- 
ducted Monticello  Female  Seminary.  For  some  years  he  was  agent 
of  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society  for  Illinois,  and  his  re- 
ports are  notable  for  their  elegance  of  style  and  breadth  of  view.  He 
was  promoter  and  secretary  of  the  Collegiate  and  Theological  Educa- 
tional Society  at  the  West.  Mr.  Sturtevant  said  of  him,  "  he  always 
meant  business.1'4 

John  Flavel  Brooks 5  was  born  in  Westmoreland,  New  York,  De- 
cember 3,  1801.  He  graduated  from  Hamilton  College  in  1828,  stud- 
ied three  years  at  Yale  Divinity  School,  and  went,  in  1831.  to  Illinois 
as  Home  Missionary  to  St.  Clair  county.  He  preached  in  CollinsviJle 
and  Belleville,  but  preaching  gave  way  to  teaching,  and  he  is  best 
known  in  Illinois  for  his  long  years  of  service  in  teaching.  He  taught 
school  in  Belleville,  and,  in  1837.  he  opened  a  teachers'  seminary  in 
Waverly,  one  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  give  normal  instruction  to 
teachers.  His  seminary  was  not,  however,  successful,  and,  in  1840, 
he  went  to  Springfield  where  he  opened  an  academy  in  which  special 
attention  was  given  to  the  education  of  teachers.  He  continued  to 
teach  till  the  academy  gave  way  to  the  public  high  school,  and  after- 
wards taught  in  a  small  private  school  till  his  death,  in  1887.  As 
teacher  "no  one  else  has  served  so  long  and  none  more  devotedly." 

1  Julian  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  181;  Historic  Morgan  and  Classic  Jacksonville:  Home 
Missionary,  May, 1836;  Samuel  Willard,  Education  in  Illinois  (Illinois  School  Report,  1883-84),  112. 

2  Obituary  Record  of  Yale  College. 

3  Obituary  Record  of  Graduates  of  Yalt  College,  No.  II. 

4  Julian  M.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  151. 

5  Seventh  General  Catalogue  of  the  Divinity  School,  Yale  University. 


23 

Elisha  Jenney1  was  born  at  Fairhaven,  Massachusetts,  November 
7,  1803.  He  graduated  from  Dartmouth  College  in  1827,  and  studied 
at  Yale  Divinity  School  for  three  years.  He  was  pastor  at  Alton, 
Waverly,  Monticello,  Spring  Creek  and  Island  Grove,  up  to  1849. 
From  1849  to  1868,  he  undertook  evangelistic  work  for  the  Alton 
Presbytery.  In  1858,  he  became  agent  of  the  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety for  Central  and  Southern  Illinois.  He  died  at  his  home,  in 
Galesburg,  in  1882. 

William  Kirby2  was  born  in  Middletown,  Connecticut,  July  10, 
1805.  He  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1827  and  studied  in  Yale 
Divinity  School  for  three  years.  He  then  became  an  instructor  in 
Illinois  College  for  two  years  and  then  pastor  to  the  churches  in 
Union  Grove,  Blackstone  Grove  and  Mendon,  successively,  till  1845. 
In  ten  years  he  organized  forty-one  churches.  For  several  years 
before  his  death,  in  1851,  he  was  a  general  agent  for  the  society  in 
Illinois,  especially  valuable  for  his  fine  business  capacity,  though  he 
himself  never  received  more  than  $400  per  year. 

Asa  Turner3  was  born  in  Templeton,  Massachusetts,  in  1799,  grad- 
uated from  Yale  College  in  1827,  and  studied  two  years  in  the  Yale 
Divinity  School.  His  early  work  was  in  Quincy,  though  later  he  was 
identified  with  Iowa  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Iowa  College. 

J.  M.  Sturtevant4  was  born  in  Warren,  Connecticut,  in  1805,  and 
graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1821.  He  became,  in  1830,  the  first 
teacher  in  Illinois  College,  continued  work  in  that  college  till  1885, 
and  for  many  years  was  its  president.  In  his  later  years  he  pub- 
lished several  books  on  religious  and  theological  subjects,  and  always 
devoted  himself  to  the  educational  development  of  the  West. 

The  following  are  the  men  who  joined  the  association  after  1829: 
Romulus  Barnes,  William  Carter,  Flavel  Bascom,  Albert  Hale,  Lucien 
Farnham. 

Romulus  Barnes5  was  born  in  Bristol,  Connecticut.  October  16, 
1800.  He  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1828  and  studied  for  three 
years  in  the  Yale  Divinity  School.  He  served  as  home  missionary 
in  Peoria,  Knox  and  McDonough  counties  and  started  a  seminary  at 
Washington,  Tazewell  county.  He  died  in  18^6,  at  the  age  of 
forty-six. 

William  Carter  was  born  in  New  Canaan,  Connecticut,  in  1803,  and 

fraduated  at  Yale  in  1828.  He  remained  at  Yale  in  the  Divinity 
chool,  and  as  a  tutor  till  1833,  when  he  went  to  the  Congregational 
church  in  Jacksonville,  and  remained  in  Illinois  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  He  was  pastor  for  many  years  (1838-1866)  at  Pittsfield,  and 
resided  there  till  his  death  in  1871.  He  was  a  trustee  of  Illinois  Col- 
lege and  director  of  Chicago  Theological  Seminary. 

Flavel  Bascom  was  born  in  Lebanon,  Connecticut,  in  1804,  and 
graduated  from  Yale  in  1828.  For  three  years  he  was  a  student  in 
the  Divinity  School,  and  for  three  years  more  a  tutor  in  the  college. 
He  worked  in  Peoria,  Bureau,  Putnam  and  Tazewell  counties.  He 

1  Seventh  General  Catalogue  of  the  Divinity  School  of  Yale  University,  14;  Pillsbury,  Historical 
Sketch  of  Illinois  State  Normal  University  (Illinois  School  Report,  1887-88},  90;   Willard,  Educa- 
tion in  Illinois  (School  Report,  1883-84),  119. 

2  Obituary  Record  of  Yale  College.  3  Ibid.  4  Ibid.  5  Ibid. 


24 

was  pastor  in  Galesburg,  Dover,  Princeton,  Hinsdale,  and,  from  1840 
to  1850,  in  the  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Chicago.  He  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  Beloit  College  and  one  of  its  trustees  for  thirty-seven 
years.  He  was  also  a  trustee  for  Knox  College  and  a  director  for 
thirty  years  of  Chicago  Theological  Seminary.1 

Albert  Hale  was  born  in  Glastonbury,  Connecticut,  in  1799,  grad- 
uated from  Yale  in  1827.  and  studied  for  three  years  in  the  Di- 
vinity School.  From  1831  to  1836,  he  was  a  home  missionary  in 
Illinois.  He  was  agent  of  the  Missionary  Society  from  1836  to 
1839,  and  then  became  pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  church 
of  Springfield,  where  he  remained  till  his  retirement  in  1867,  "  a  fear- 
less advocate  of  human  rights  and  Christian  patriotism."  "  The  mis- 
sionary tours  of  Mr.  Hale  and  Mr.  Baldwin  extended  from  the  Ohio 
river  to  the  northern  border  of  the  state,  and  their  good  results  con- 
tinue to  this  day."2 

Lucien  Farnharn  was  born  July  8.  1799,  at  Lisbon,  Connecticut. 
He  graduated  from  Amherst  College  in  1827.  and  from  Andover  Sem- 
inary in  1880.  He  was  thus  the  only  member  of  the  "  band  "  who 
never  studied  at  Yale.  He  went  as  home  missionary  to  Illinois  in 
1830,  and  preached  there  till  his  death,  in  1874.  He  preached  in 
Jacksonville,  Princeton,  Hadley.  Batavia,  Lockport  and  Newark. 3 

Before  this  group  of  men  had  entered  Illinois  to  advance  with  its 
population  toward  the  center  and  north,  an  isolated  settlement  had 
appeared  in  the  extreme  northern  part  of  the  state  where,  at  Galena, 
the  government  lead  mines  were  attracting  a  rude  population.  In 
April,  1828,  a  resident  of  the  settlement  made  an  appeal  to  the  Home 
Missionary  Society  for  a  resident  missionary. 4  He  justified  his  ap- 
peal by  giving  a  description  of  the  condition  and  prospects  of  Galena. 
At  that  time  it  had  1,200  to  1,500  inhabitants,  although  only  two 
years  before  there  had  been  but  fifty  people  there.  Two-thirds  of 
the  present  population  were  from  the  United  States;  the  remainder 
were  mostly  Irish  Catholics.  The  United  States  agent  reported  five 
million  pounds  of  lead  as  taken  from  the  smelting  establishments. 
''  Every  steamboat  brings  workers  and  by  July  it  is  thought  the  num- 
ber will  be  10.000."  There  was  no  clergymen,  Protestant  or  Catholic, 
and  no  school.  A  movement  was  on  foot  for  erecting  a  place  of 
worship  and  starting  a  subscription  for  the  support  of  a  clergyman; 
two  names  were  down  for  $125.  July  7th,  the  same  correspondent 
reinforced  his  appeal  by  saying  the  population  had  reached  10,000, 
and  the  subscription  $400. 

Meanwhile,  Aratus  Kent,  of  Suffield,  Connecticut,  had  graduated 
from  Yale  in  1816,  and  studied  theology  in  New  York  for  four  years. 
During  the  year  1822-1823,  when  he  was  a  student  at  Princeton  The- 
ological Seminary,  he  had  offered  his  services  to  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety, asking  to  be  sent  "  to  a  place  so  hard  that  no  one  else  would 
take  it."  In  March,  1829,  he  was  commissioned  to  Galena.  After  a 

1  Obituary  Record  of  Yale  College:  Seventh  General  Catalogue  of  the  Divinity  School  of  Yatt 
University,  14. 

2  Julian  M.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  243. 

3  General  Catalogue  of  the  Theological  Seminary,  Andover,  Mass,  1880,  75. 

4  Home  Missionary,  April,  1828. 


25 

journey  of  eighteen  and  a  half  days  he  reached  his  destination  with  a 
feeling  of  elation  that  all  the  broad  region  above  St.  Louis  was  u  his 
diocese,"  since  there  was  no  clergymen  anywhere  in  it.  Thus  began  a 
service  of  thirty-nine  years  for  northern  Illinois.  For  nineteen  years 
his  labors  centered  about  Galena.  He  then  became  agent  of  the  so- 
ciety for  northern  Illinois.  He  did  much  for  the  religious  and  educa- 
tional interests  of  this  part  of  the  state.  He  helped  to  found  Beloit 
College,  and  was  its  first  president.1 

When  he  reached  G-alena,  he  did  not  find  conditions  so  favorable 
as  he  had  hoped.  "A  combination  of  unpropitious  circumstances  has 
already  produced  and  threatens  still  great  embarrassments  in  this 
place  and  the  adjoining  country.  The  regulations  of  government  are 
oppressive.  I  shall  not  take  it  upon  me  to  say  that  they  require  too 
great  a  proportion  of  the  lead,  but  the  requisition  that  those  who  live 
fifty  miles  out  should  deliver  their  tithes  here,  and  the  restrictions 
by  which  people  are  prevented  from  cultivating  the  soil  and  are  then 
made  to  depend  on  markets  a  thousand  miles  distant,  are  oppressive 
beyond  endurance,  The  merchants  and  smelters  have  sold  their 
goods  on  credit  to  such  an  unwarrantable  extent  that  the  country  is 
become  bankrupt.  The  price  of  lead  is  so  low  that,  under  present 
disadvantages,  it  will  scarcely  pay  for  digging,  smelting  and  convey- 
ing to  market.  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  capitalists,  who  generally 
live  at  a  distance,  are  taking  the  alarm  and  are  using  oppressive 
measures  to  call  in  their  funds.  The  consequence  of  all  which  is, 
that  the  people  are  fast  retreating,  and  the  present  prospect  is,  that 
but  few,  comparatively,  will  remain  here  through  the  winter."2 

In  the  fall  of  1829,  Mr.  Kent  made  a  tour  to  St.  Louis,  and,  on  his 
return  by  way  of  the  Illinois  river,  visited  the  settlement  of  Union 
Grove,  where  a  little  community  of  twenty  families  had  built  a 
church,  the  first  north  of  Springfield  and  a  100  miles  above  it.  These 
families  were  all  from  the  south.  Some,  coming  originally  from 
Tennessee,  had  first  settled  in  Bond  county  and  founded  Bethel 
church,  to  which  Thomas  A.  Spielman  was  commissioned  in  1829. 
Some  came  by  way  of  Bond  county  from  the  Red  Oak  church,  Brown 
county,  Ohio,  led  by  their  pastor.  Rev.  James  Gilliland  from  South 
Carolina.  Others  came  directly  from  the  church  of  Rev.  John  Ran- 
kin,  in  Ripley,  Brown  county,  Ohio.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  these  people 
had  left  the  south  to  escape  the  evils  of  slavery,  and  their  churches 
were  anti-slavery  churches.  Aratus  Kent  preached  the  first  sermon 
to  the  new  settlement  and  reported  to  the  society  their  desire  for  a 
minister.  Rev.  John  McDonald,  "a  western  man,"  was  commissioned 
to  Union  Grove  in  1831. 3 

By  1830,  even  before  the  Black  Hawk  War,  Mr.  Kent  is  exploiting 
the  excellence  of  northern  Illinois  and  calling  for  settlers:  "  I  am  still 
of  the  opinion  that  this  mining  country  will  settle  with  unexampled 
rapidity  when  it  is  thrown  into  market,  as  I  think  it  will  be,  within 
two  years.  Believing  as  I  do  that  the  soil,  the  minerals,  the  salubrity 
and  the  water  power  afford  a  combination  of  inducements  to  settlers 


1  C.  A.  Church,  History  of  Rockford,  295;  Home  Missionaty,  March,  1829. 

2  Home  Alissionary,  1829. 

3  Correspondence  with  H.  E.  Leeper,  Princeton,  Illinois. 


26 

unequalled  in  the  United  States,  and  such  as  will  soon  render  it  a 
populous  district,  I  am  extremely  anxious  that  laborers  should  take 
the  field  in  time."  He  pleads  for  a  colony  to  come  out  like  that  of 
Plymouth  Rock.  They  should  come  from  principle.  •'  Bibles,  tracts 
and  missionaries  are  indispensable,  but  they  must  be  accompanied  by 
intelligent  and  matured  piety  in  the  ordinary  walks  of  life." 

By  1831,  Galena  had  recovered  her  prosperity.  By  1833,  Mr.  Kent 
impressed  by  the  military  defences  of  the  frontier,  fancies  a  line  of 
evangelical  posts  along  the  northern  boundary  of  the  state.  This  is 
suggested  by  a  second  visit  to  Union  Grbve  and  one  to  Fort  Dear- 
born, where  he  found  Jeremiah  Porter,  just  arrived  with  the  troops 
from  the  north  and  ready  to  take  up  missionary  duties  among  soldiers 
and  civilians.  He  would  have  Union  Grove  and  Fort  Dearborn  serve 
as  evangelical  posts  to  resist  the  onsets  of  sin  just  as  the  military 
post  was  set  for  the  protection  of  the  country.  Mr.  Kent's  pride  in 
Galena  is  shown  in  his  comment  on  Chicago  at  this  time:  "It  is  an 
important  station,  and  if  the  pier  now  commencing  should  be  perma- 
nent and  the  harbor  become  a  safe  one,  Chicago  will  undoubtedly 
grow  as  rapidly  as  any  village  in  the  western  country."  In  1841,  he 
wrote,  that  "  more  business  is  done  in  Galena  than  any  place  either 
in  the  state  or  territory."  1 

In  1829,  Aratus  Kent  found  Union  Grove  in  Putnam  county,  isola- 
ted by  a  100  miles  of  uninhabited  prairie  from  Springfield.  It  was 
the  navigable  Illinois  river  that  thus  drew  settlers  into  the  center 
and  north  of  the  state.  In  1831,  a  settlement  was  formed  at  Pekin, 
and  a  church  founded  the  following  year,  even  during  the  progress  of 
the  Indian  war,  showing  how  settlers  were  crowding  into  the  Indian 
country.  In  1828,  the  "upper  counties"  were  Sangamon,  Morgan  and 
Greene,  according  to  John  Ellis.  In  that  same  year  another  writer 
describes  Greene,  Morgan,  Sangamon,  Tazewell,  Peoria,  Fulton,. 
Schuyler,  Adams  and  Pike,  as  counties  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
state.2  He  says  settlements  in  Morgan  and  Sangamon  began  as  early 
as  1820.  All  of  these  counties,  except  Tazewell,  were  in  the  military 
bounty  tract  which  had  been  surveyed  and  laid  off  into  counties  to 
41°.  Six  of  these — Peoria,  Fulton,  Schuyler,  Calhoun,  Pike  and 
Adams — had  been  organized  and  courts  held.  "  Communication  with 
other  parts  of  the  state  is  at  times  very  difficult,  on  account  of  ice,  bad 
ferries  and  overflowing  of  the  Illinois  and  its  tributaries." 

Rev.  J.  G.  Bergen  was  sent  into  this  region  in  1828,  receiving  cour- 
tesies from  Governor  Edwards,  at  Belleville,  on  his  way.  He  found 
Springfield  a  town  of  1.800  inhabitants,  with  traders  coming  in  from 
twenty  to  forty  miles  around.  In  1830,  he  writes:  "  One  never  beheld 
a  fairer  or  more  inviting  region  than  the  upper  counties  to  which  a 
tide  of  emigration  rolls  with  an  unexampled  rapidity."  "  We  must 
have  pious  laymen.  Let  such  individuals  consider  well  and  they 
will  find  the  appeal  is  strong  to  their  interest  and  duty,  for  the  pres- 
ent and  the  future,  for  themselves  and  the  generation  which  is  to 


1  Home  Missionary,  1831. 

2  Home  Missionary ,11828. 


27 

come."  1  He,  too,  reports  the  advanced  settlement  of  Union  Grove 
and  Pekin,  the  latter  "  only  came  into  market  last  autumn."  In  1831, 
a  writer  from  Vandalia  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  missiona- 
ries are  altogether  neglecting  the  south  and  east  of  the  state  for  the 
north  and  west,  and  that,  too,  when  the  bulk  of  the  population  is 
south  of  Vandalia. 

This  then  was  the  state  of  settlement  in  1833,  at  the  close  of  the 
Black  Hawk  War.  The  majority  of  the  popiilation  was  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  the  state,  but  there  was  more  of  interest  and  promise  on 
the  northern  frontier.  Immediately  upon  the  close  of  the  war  the 
eastern  emigration,  which  had  already  begun  and  had  had  an  influ- 
ence upon  the  "  upper  counties  "  of  1828,  was  increased  to  a  great 
extent.  Not  without  influence  upon  would-be  settlers  must  have 
been  the  appeals  of  missionaries  published  and  distributed  widely 
as  they  were  through  the  East.  They  never  failed  to  describe  the 
beauty  and  fertility  of  the  country,  its  promise  of  future  fruitfulness, 
and  the  need  of  "  pious  families  "  as  settlers  to  possess  the  land  for 
righteousness.  Who  could  resist  the  optimism  and  hopefulness  of 
Mr.  Bergen,  as  he  wrote,  in  1829,  from  Springfield:2  "It  has  ap- 
peared to  me  after  a  year's  observation  of  climate,  soil,  production 
and  great  water  privileges  in  these  parts,  having  the  Wabash  on  the 
east,  the  Ohio  on  the  south,  the  Mississippi  on  the  west,  the  Illinois 
and  Sangamon  through  the  center,  and  the  inexhaustible  mines  on 
the  north,  that  here  are  held  out  the  brightest  and  richest  prospects 
of  abundance,  usefulness  and  comfort  to  thousands  in  the  eastern  and 
middle  states.  And  is  not  now  the  time  while  there  is  a  stagnation 
of  business  in  the  old  states,  a  depression  in  many  of  your  great  es- 
tablishments and  hundreds  are  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  here 
the  best  selections  are  yet  to  be  made?  A  thorough  conviction  on 
these  points  by  many  letters  from  my  relations  and  others  in  this 
country,  together  with  a  full  belief  that  our  population  in  the  West 
was  out-growing  the  institutions  of  religion,  science  and  common 
learning,  induced  me  with  my  little  family,  voluntarily  to  lay  down 
our  many  endearments  in  the  East  and  to  take  up  our  stand  here. 
When  I  first  saw  Mr.  Ellis,  more  than  a  year  ago,  he  told  me  he  was 
fixed  in  his  purpose  to  abide  in  this  state,  while  up  to  that  hour  he 
could  scarcely  see  a  ray  of  hope  dawning  on  our  cause  in  Illinois." 


1  Home  Missionary.    December,  1828;  1831. 

2  Home  Missionary,  June,  1829. 


28 


CHAPTER   VI. 


1833-1836.     GROWTH   OF   THE    CHURCHES   IN 
NORTHERN  AND  EASTERN  ILLINOIS. 


Chicago  was  the  first  place  to  spring  into  importance  after  the 
Black  Hawk  War.  In  1833, *  Theron  Baldwin,  of  the  "  Yale  Band," 
visited  the  place  and  thus  described  it:  "  Chicago  is  destined  soon  to 
be  a  place  of  great  importance.  It  is  fast  becoming  a  great  thorough- 
fare, furnishing,  as  it  does,  the  only  harbor  on  all  that  portion  of  the 
lake;  especially,  when  the  canal  or  railroad  is  opened,  there  must  be 
a  vast  amount  of  business  drawn  to  that  point.  It  has  increased  with 
astonishing  rapidity  the  present  season.  I  was  told  that  since  the 
opening  of  spring,  not  far  from  seventy  buildings  of  all  sorts  had 
been  erected,  or  were  under  way.  There  are  more  than  twenty  stores 
of  different  kinds,  and,  1  regret  to  add,  that  with  few  exceptions  they 
traffic  in  ardent  spirits.  I  saw  nothing  in  Chicago  to  induce  the 
belief  that  the  morals  of  the  people  generally  were  below  other  new 
towns  of  a  similar  character.  No  instance  of  intoxication  on  the  part 
of  the  white  man  fell  under  my  notice.  But  the  degraded  Potawatta- 
mies,  who  on  some  days  throng  the  streets,  presented  a  most  disgust- 
ing and  affecting  spectacle.  One  could  hardly  walk  out  at  any  time 
without  coming  in  contact  with  more  or  less  cases  of  beastly  intoxi- 
cation among  them."  It  was  on  this  trip  that  the  deserted  forts,  con- 
structed as  protection  against  the  Indians,  were  used  as  preaching 
places." 

A  little  earlier,  Jeremiah  Porter,  educated  at  Williams'  College  and 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  was  commissioned  as  missionary  to 
the  military  post  at  Sault  de  Saint  Marie.  When  Major  John  Fowle 
was  sent  with  troops  to  build  a  pier  and  cut  the  sand  bar  at  Fort 
Dearborn,  he  asked  Mr.  Porter  to  go  with  him.  He  at  once  found 
material  for  a  church,  many  of  whose  members  had  been  born  in  New 
England.  Writing  on  his  arrival,  he  said:  UA  papal  priest  reached 
this  place  from  St.  Louis  a  fortnight  since  and  I  hope  Providence 
has  sent  a  counteracting  influence  here  just  in  season."  Mr.  Porter 
was  not  so  optimistic  about  Chicago  as  was  Mr.  Baldwin.  "  Iniquity 
has  abounded  here,"  he  wrote.  "  The  awful  scenes  of  '  the  treaty,' 
the  unprovoked  and  wanton  violence  of  the  Sabbath,  the  disregard  by 


1  Home  Missionary,  1833. 


multitudes  of  the  necessary  laws  and  customs  of  well  regulated  com- 
munities, the  ridiculous  imitation  of  the  follies  of  the  most  profligate 
cities  of  our  land,  have  made  Christians  tremble  for  the  future  pros- 
pects of  this  place."  This  same  year  both  Mr.  Porter  and  Mr.  Kent 
visited  the  settlement  at  Fountaindale,  or  DuPage,  where  were  a 
cluster  of  families  from  Vermont,  and  founded  a  church  there. 

The  valley  of  the  Fox  river  and  the  region  between  the  Des  Plaines 
river  and  Lake  Michigan  now  became  a  favorite  place  for  settlement, 
in  1834,  Rev.  N.  C.  Clarke  was  sent  to  DuPage  and  became  the  active 
missionary  and  organizer  of  churches  of  all  the  Fox  and  DesPlaines 
river  region.  A  grant  for  a  railroad  between  Chicago  and  Galena 
shows  the  rising  importance  of  this  region.  Churches  were  founded 
in  Plainville  (1836),  St.  Charles  (1835),  Elgin  (1836),  Aurora  (1838). 

In  1837,  the  First  Congregational  church  of  Rockford  was  organ- 
ized. Its  early  establishment  in  the  town,  its  peaceful  history,  its 
strong  and  influential  position,  are  typical  of  the  history  of  these 
Congregational  churches  in  most  northern  Illinois  towns.  The  first 
permanent  settlers  of  Rockford  were  Germanicus  Kent  and  Thatcher 
Blake,  the  former  a  native  of  Suffield,  Connecticut,  and  a  brother  of 
Aratus  Kent,  the  missionary  at  Galena.  Thatcher  Blake  was  from 
Maine.  One  came  to  build  a  saw  mill,  the  other  to  farm.  This  was 
in  1834.  Mr.  Kent's  family  joined  him,  coming  from  Galena  in  the 
spring  of  1835.  Other  people  had  by  this  time  settled  in  the  locality. 
On  the  second  Sunday  of  June,  1835,  the  first  religious  service  was 
conducted  in  the  house  of  Germanicus  Kent  by  his  brother,  Aratus 
Kent,  and  the  church  was  organized  May  5,  1837,  with  nine  members. 
Its  first  church  building  was  made  possible  by  gifts  from  friends  of 
the  early  settlers  in  New  York,  amounting  to  $800.  The  church 
seems  to  have  supported  its  minister  alone  from  the  beginning.  The 
longest  pastorate  has  been  that  of  Rev.  Henry  M.  Goodwin,  from  1850 
to  1872.  In  1849,  a  second  Congregational  church  was  founded, 'and, 
in  1858,  a  third;  both  daughters  of  the  first.  Rockford  has  always 
been  a  stronghold  of  Congregationalism.1 

Through  the  rest  of  the  30s  and  40s,  there  was  persistent  and  in- 
creasing demand  for  missionaries  as  the  country  filled  up  with  eastern 
settlers.  Churches  generally  became  self-supporting,  such  was  the 
material  prosperity  of  the  country.  Yet  in  1844,  of  forty-six  Congre- 
gational churches,  all  but  two  were  helped  by  the  society;  and  that 
same  year  there  was  a  call  for  twenty  missionaries  for  northern  Illi- 
nois, many  of  the  towns  offering  to  pay  part,  at  least,  of  the  salary. 
It  was  clear  that  during  these  years  the  southern  part  of  the  state 
was  neglected  by,  or  inhospitable  to,  the  eastern  missionaries.  In 
1847,  about  Jacksonville,  which  in  1828  was  the  center  of  missionary 
work,  twelve  churches  were  without  ministers.  The  new  population 
coming  to  the  northern  part  of  the  state  showed  tastes  agreeable  to 
the  missionary,  and  the  work  in  the  north  and  west  was  urgent  and 
prosperous  One  pastor  wrote  of  his  parish,  as  follows:  "Permit  me 
to  notice  a  fact  which  finds  a  parallel  only  in  the  early  history  of  New 
England ;  that  Christians  seem  to  be  roused  to  the  importance  of  lay- 


1  Church.  History  of  fackford,  28,  87,  306. 


30 

ing  well  the  foundations  of  society  in  the  new  but  rapidly  rising 
communities  of  the  West.  They  have  an  interest  not  only  to  know, 
but  to  decide  what  shall  be  the  moral  and  religious  tone  of  feeling. 
Christians  at  this  day,  stimulated  by  a  sense  of  duty,  cheerfully  leave 
the  favored  scenes  of  older  states  to  exert  their  influences  in  formijig 
the  character  of  the  infant  portions  of  our  country." 

The  year  1851  marked  an  advance  in  the  economic  development  of 
the  state  and  also  a  development  of  her  religious  interests.  This  was 
due  to  the  opening  of  the  Illinois  Central  railroad,  which  made  land 
available  for  settlement  which  had  hitherto  been  so  inaccessible  as  to 
be  undesirable.  The  missionary  saw  the  importance  of  such  a  road 
when  it  was  first  talked  about.  The  main  plan  was  a  line  from  Cairo 
to  Galena  with  east  and  west  connections,  and  this  meant  access  to 
both  a  southern  and  an  eastern  market.  William  Kirby,  of  the  "Yale 
Band,"  estimated  that  no  less  than  fifty-seven  counties  would  be 
crossed,  or  nearly  approached.1  "  The  scarcity  of  timber  and  remote- 
ness from  the  natural  channels  of  trade  have  been  the  great  obstacles 
to  the  temporal  and  religious  interests  of  the  interior  counties  which 
will  be  reached  by  this  vast  chain  of  iron  roads.  These  obstacles 
will  now  be  removed.  The  timber  and  coal  of  the  southern  counties 
will  supply  the  deficiency  of  the  middle  and  northern ;  and  the  ease 
of  finding  the  best  markets  will  allure  emigrants  of  every  description 
from  the  older  states.  This  quickening  of  the  stagnant  life  in  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  state  cannot  but  operate  favorably  to  the  spread 
of  religion.  Enterprise  is  both  the  result  and  the  harbinger  of  its 
triumphs."  2 

In  1852,  Enoch  Kingsbury,  the  pioneer  missionary  of  eastern  Illi- 
nois, who  had  been  in  Danville  since  1832,  uttered  a  plea  for  mission- 
aries for  nine  eastern  counties  where  none  were  then  stationed.  This 
led  to  investigation,  and  the  report,  that  there  was  a  region  nearly  100 
miles  in  width  from  Kankakee  to  the  Ohio  river  in  which  the  work  of 
the  society  had  barely  been  commenced.  In  eight  contiguous  coun- 
ties, containing  a  population  of  more  than  30,000,  no  missionary  had 
ever  been  stationed.3  By  1855,  the  main  line  of  the  railroad  was  com- 
pleted. There  followed  an  increase  in  the  value  of  land  and  its 
productions  and  a  large  increase  in  population.  Many  villages  sprang 
into  existence  or  became  of  new  importance.  Of  these  were  Cen- 
tralia,  where  were  the  repair  shops  of  the  road  and  the  homes  of  many 
of  the  men,  where  both  freight  and  passenger  trains  were  held  over 
Sunday;  LaSalle  and  Peru,  the  terminus  of  the  grand  canal,  and  the 
meeting  place  of  the  lines  from  Chicago,  Galena  and  Cairo.  At 
LaSalle,  Rev.  William  H.  Collins,  of  the  family  who  settled  Collins- 
ville  in  1818.  organized  a  church  and  tried  to  introduce  a  higher  tone 
into  the  money-making  spirit  of  the  place.  Here  he  preached  to 
Baptists,  Unitarians,  Universalists,  "  Moralists,"  "  Infidels,"  and 


1  Home  Missionary  (Annual  Report)  1851. 

2  Home  Missionary,  1852.  3  Ibid,  1853. 


31 

"  Skeptics,"  to  men  glorying  in  their  shame,  distillers,  bartenders 
who  say  that  they  "  like  to  hear  a  good  string  of  common  sense  well 
fixed  up."  i 

The  "  road  "  itself  did  much  to  help  the  church  in  the  new  commu- 
nities. Land  was  given  for  church  sites,  freight  houses  were  loaned 
for  religious  services  till  churches  could  be  built.  It  observed  the 
Sabbath  by  stopping  all  work  on  its  lines.  It  contributed  to  the  sup- 
port of  religious  institutions  and  employed  colporteurs  to  work  among 
its  own  workmen.  It  also  showed  its  interest  in  anti-slavery  agitation 
by  aiding  fugitive  slaves  in  their  flight  to  Chicago.2 

This  last  stage  of  the  opening  of  churches  which  took  place  in 
eastern  Illinois,  practically  covers  the  time  till  1860.  Our  outline 
indicates  how  thorough  was  the  work  of  the  eastern  missionary  in 
reaching  all  parts  of  the  state.  It  indicates  how  he  sought  to  impress 
the  ideals  of  New  England  upon  this  state,  so  rapid  in  its  growth,  so 
important  to  the  nation  in  the  stand  it  took  in  the  following  years, 
reflecting  as  concretely  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine  the  real  effect  of 
the  moral  and  religious  ideals,  persistently  proclaimed  by  the  New 
Englander,  to  a  large  population  made  up  of  those  by  no  means  natu- 
rally inclined  or  predisposed  to  these  ideals. 


1  Home  Missionary,  January,  1857. 

2  W.  H.  Siebert,  The  Underground  Railroad.    (New  York,  1898),  97. 


CHAPTER   VII. 


DIFFICULTIES    OF    THE    NEW   ENGLAND 
PIONEERS. 


Although  many  of  the  communities  were  settled  from  all  parts  of 
the  Union,  yet  an  examination  of  the  mere  names  on  the  map  of  Illi- 
nois proves  its  intimate  connection  with  New  England.  This  often 
indicates  merely  the  desire  of  a  leading  family  or  influential  individ- 
ual to  use  again  some  old  and  loved  name  as  Lebanon ;  but  sometimes 
it  is  in  evidence  of  the  sentiment  of  a  colony  moving  from  New  Eng- 
land as  in  the  case  of  Bunker  Hill,  Macoupin  county,  or  Marine, 
Madison  county,  which  was  settled  by  a  company  of  sea-captains  and 
and  seamen  from  Connecticut.  It  might  indicate  a  colony  from  the 
very  place  after  which  the  new  settlement  was  named,  as  Guilford, 
Adams  county,  and  Wethersfield,  Henry  country. 

Quincy,  Elgin,  Granville,  in  fact  all  the  northern  towns,  had  New 
Englanders  as  a  large  portion  of  their  population;  but  the  most  con- 
spicuous example  of  the  New  England  colony  migrating  as  a  religious 
organization,  was  furnished  by  the  founders  of  Princeton.  Theirs 
was  a  quaint  story  typical  in  many  ways  of  the  hardships  of  the 
early  settlers,  yet  enriched  and  idealized  by  their  appreciation  of 
their  connection  with  the  religious  past  and  their  sense  of  responsi- 
bility for  ,the  future  of  an  important  part  of  their  country.  The 
prime  mover  was  Deacon  Ebenezer  S.  Phelps,  of  Northampton, 
Mass.1  The  object,  as  published  in  the  circular  issued  at  the  time, 
was  "  to  advance  the  cause  of  Christ  by  planting  religious  institu- 
tions in  the  virgin  soil  of  the  West  and  aiding  the  cause  of  Christian 
education  in  its  various  departments."  The  foundation  of  this  colony 
was  regarded  as  a  matter  of  grave  importance  in  Northampton  and 
vicinity.  The  meeting  of  the  council  to  organize  the  colony  church 
in  1831,  aroused  great  interest  in  that  place  and  in  the  adjoining 
towns.  It  drew  together  a  very  large  congregation.  Eighteen  people 
proposed  to  unite  with  this  church.  The  churches  represented  in  the 
council  were  from  Northampton,  Beechertown  and  Putney.  Rev. 
Ichabod  S.  Spencer,  of  Northampton,  delivered  a  discourse  on  the 
text:  "Fear  not,  little  flock;  for  it  is  your  father's  good  pleasure  to 
give  you  the  kingdom."  This  sermon  is  still  preserved  as  a  sort  of 


1  The  Hampshire  Colony.    Historical  Papers  (Princeton,  1881). 


33 

sacred  relic  in  Princeton  and  sometimes  read  in  their  church  services. 
The  council  was  followed  by  a  series  of  very  successful  revival 
services. 

At  last  the  little  colony  started,  though  rumors  of  Indian  hostili- 
ties deterred  many  from  joining  and  several  families  postponed  their 
removal,  while  a-  few  members  had  gone  to  Illinois  in-  advance  in 
1830.  The  main  body  met  in  Albany  and  embarked  in  a  canal  boat 
May  7,  1831,  with  Cotton  Mather,  of  Hadley,  for  captain.  They  en- 
tered into  a  contract  not  to  travel  on  the  Sabbath,  and  on  the  first 
Sunday  they  rested  in  Amsterdam.  These  names  and  circumstances 
were  pleasantly  suggestive  to  them  of  early  Pilgrim  history.  The 
next  Sabbath  they  were  in  Buffalo.  They  expected  to  find  a  schooner 
here  bound  for  Chicago,  but  were  disappointed.  They  took  a  steam- 
boat to  Detroit  and  there  found  a  schooner  sailing  for  Chicago,  but 
without  room  either  for  themselves  or  their  goods.  They  contracted 
to  have  their  goods  taken  on  the  next  trip,  two  or  three  months  later, 
and  set  out  with  teams  for  Chicago.  In  a  few  days  a  pair  of  horses 
died,  and  the  eight  young  men  of  the  party  had  to  travel  on  foot.  In 
this  manner  they  reached  Mottville,  on  the  St.  Joseph  river. 

Up  to  this  time  they  had  no  definite  locality  selected  for  a  home; 
but  they  now  learned  that  Mr.  Jones,  who  had  come  out  the  previous 
autumn  to  pick  out  a  place,  was  at  Bailey's  Point  on  the  Vermilion 
river,  and  had  built  there  a  double  cabin  for  their  reception.  The 
young  men  decided  to  make  the  rest  of  the  journey  by  water.  They 
bought  two  canoes,  lashed  them  together,  put  their  trunks  aboard, 
and  started  down  the  St.  Joseph.  It  is  a  rapid  stream  and  they 
reached  the  portage,  sixty-five  miles,  in  twelve  hours.  Here  they 
hired  an  ox  team  to  transport  them  to  a  lake  or  swamp,  the  source 
of  the  Kankakee  river,  a  branch  of  the  Illinois.  They  were  told  it 
was  160  miles  to  Ottawa.  They  expected  to  make  that  distance  in 
three  or  four  days  and  laid  in  provisions  accordingly.  They  found 
navigation  on  the  Kankakee  swamp  and  river  much  less  rapid  than 
011  the  St.  Joseph,  and  by  Saturday  night  they  were  still  some  dis- 
tance from  the  union  of  the  Kankakee  and  the  Des  Plaines.  Rain 
induced  them  to  tie  to  a  tree  for  the  night,  and  Sunday  morning 
found  them  lying  in  several  inches  of  water  in  the  bottom  of  their 
boats,  After  building  a  fire  and  drying  their  clothes,  they  reluctantly 
decided  to  travel  that  Sabbath  day,  for  the  first  time  on  their  jour- 
ney. Their  only  rations  for  some  time  had  been  slippery  elm  and 
bass-wood  bark.  Sunday  night  they  spent  on  shore  in  a  drenching 
rain. 

Monday  was  clear  and  they  soon  reached  an  Indian  encampment 
and  applied  in  vain  for  food.  Pressing  onward  they  heard  a  cow-bell 
in  the  distance.  Leaving  the  river  and  ascending  the  bluff,  they 
found  a  cabin  occupied  by  a  white  family,  who  could  give  them  noth- 
ing but  niush  and  milk.  To  prepare  this  the  woman  shelled  some 
corn  and  ground  it  in  a  hand  mill.  The  young  men  ate  just  enough 
to  appease  their  hunger.  It  was  still  twenty  miles  to  Ottawa  and 
they  pushed  on.  About  sunset  they  saw  a  cabin  on  the  south  side  of 
the  river,  and  on  inquiry  how  far  it  was  to  Ottawa,  they  were  told, 
"•  This  is  Ottawa."  Here  they  feasted  on  mush,  milk  and  honey,  and 
-3  H 


34 

slept  on  a  puncheon  floor.  The  next  day  they  reached  a  point  on  the 
Illinois,  opposite  the  present  city  of  LaSalle,  and  the  following  day 
joined  the  rest  of  their  company  at  the  cabin  at  Bailey's  Point. 

These  last  had  arrived  the  same  day  only  a  few  hours  in  advance. 
This  was  June  9,  five  weeks  and  two  days  since  leaving  Albany.  The 
journey  to  Chicago  had  been  exceedingly  dreary  and  fatiguing.  With 
much  difficulty  and  delay  they  procured  other  teams  at  Chicago  to 
take  them  the  100  miles  to  Bailey's  Point.  They  found  the  Vermil- 
ion river  in  flood  and  were  ferried  across  one  by  one.  reclining  on 
the  bottom  of  a  dug-out,  lest  it  be  upset..  After  some  rest,  they  de- 
cided to  locate  on  the  prairie  east  and  south  of  Bureau  Creek  timber; 
but  they  found  the  prairie  almost  too  wet  to  travel  on.  Finally, 
leaving  their  wagon  stalled  in  a  creek,  their  guide  undertook  to  pilot 
them  to  a  certain  cabin  to  pass  the  night ;  but  they  failed  to  find  it 
and  slept  under  the  open  sky.  In  the  morning  they  could  have  no 
breakfast  till  they  went  back  five  miles  to  their  wagon. 

In  the  late  summer,  others  joined  them,  coming  out  by  way  of  the 
Ohio  canal  and  the  Ohio,  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers,  sending 
their  goods  by  way  of  New  Orleans.  The  members  of  the  colony 
kept  dispersing  to  other  parts  for  settlement,  so  that  by  November, 
1881,  there  were  but  four  resident  members  of  the  colony  church  and 
they  had  to  go  to  the  older  settlements  on  the  Illinois  for  awhile  for 
fear  of  Indians.  Three  heads  of  families  died  in  the  first  month. 
Such  hardships  incident  to  the  journey  to  the  new  country  and  to  the 
first  year  or  two  of  settlement,  were  followed  by  hardships  arising 
from  the  new  conditions  of  living,  particularly  the  sickness  and  death 
that  bore  so  hard  upon  the  people  for  many  years.  Here  the  mission- 
ary was  particularly  tried;  for,  not  only  did  those  sorrows  come  to 
his  own  family,  but  he  must  minister  to  the  sick  and  dying  in  other 
families,  and  often  felt  with  peculiar  keenness  the  loss  to  infant  set- 
tlements of  those  who  had  for  it  the  same  high  aims  that  he  cherished. 
Cholera  was  severe  in  1833.  Carrollton  lost  one-sixteenth  of  its 
population,  Jacksonville  and  Quincy  fifty  of  their  inhabitants.  In 
1849,  there  was  a  serious  cholera  epidemic  in  Belleville,  250  dying  of 
a  population  of  3,000;  and,  in  1851,  it  is  again  mentioned  in  Hancock 
county.  Cholera  seems  usually  to  have  followed  the  rivers.  Bilious 
fever  and  fever  and  ague  were  for  years  the  almost  constant  scourge 
of  the  people.  Even  missionary  magazines  contained  articles  of 
instruction  to  the  people  as  to  the  care  of  their  lands,  so  as  to  avoid 
these  constant  sicknesses.1 


1  Home  Missionary,  1833;  November,  1841;  October,  1849. 


85 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


THE  EFFECT  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  ON 
THE  GROWTH  OF  CHURCHES. 


Perhaps  no  class  of  men  was  more  sensitive  to  the  economic 
changes  in  Illinois  than  the  home  missionary  pastors.  The  growth 
and  prosperity  of  the  churches  were  favorably  affected  by  emigration, 
good  markets  and  good  prices ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  were  unfavor- 
ably affected,  as  regards  numbers  and  financial  support,  by  the  tide 
of  migration  away  from  Illinois,  by  general  "  hard  times,"  by  local 
losses  in  crops  due  to  floods  or  inadaptability  of  crop  to  soil.  We 
have  noticed  the  active  part  the  earlier  missionaries  took  in  inviting 
settlers  into  the  country  just  before  the  Black  Hawk  War.  For  a  few 
years  thereafter  the  chief  matter  for  comment  in  their  reports,  out- 
side of  matters  purely  religious,  was  the  rapid  increase  in  population. 
One  can  fancy  the  bustle  and  activity  of  these  years,  the  optimism 
induced  by  the  attractiveness  of  the  country  and  the  large  returns 
from  the  land.  If  there  was  anything  in  all  this  for  the  missionary 
to  deplore,  it  was  the  spirit  of  speculation  starting  in  the  land  and 
spreading  to  all  industries.1 

Every  village  with  the  smallest  prospect  of  growth,  and  some  unin- 
habited spots  in  the  wilderness,  had  a  large  area  staked  off  into  town 
lots  and  platted  in  a  highly  ornamental  style  for  the  information  of 
purchasers.2  And  those  lots  were  actually  sold  at  stiff  city  prices. 

The  larger  towns  were  already  great  cities  on  paper.  Alton,  with  a 
population  of  4,000  or  5,000,  had  staked  off  all  the  surrounding  bluffs. 
A  short  time  before  his  death,  Mr.  Lovejoy  had  predicted,  in  the 
Alton  Observer,  that  in  ten  years  the  city  would  contain  50,000  in- 
habitants. From  Peru  to  Ottawa,  about  sixteen  miles,  the  whole 
Illinois  bottom,  and  even  the  top  of  Buffalo  Rock,  were  platted  for  a 
continuous  city.  Even  in  Jacksonville,  then  containing  a  population 
of  not  more  than  1,200,  speculation  was  so  active  that  a  man  could 
hardly  keep  pace  with  the  real  estate  transfers  in  the  vicinity  of  his 
own  dwelling.  The  sale  of  these  western  "  city  lots  "  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  western  market.  Land  titles  came  gradually  to  form  "  a 
part  of  the  circulating  medium  in  New  York,  Boston  and  Phila- 
delphia." 


1  Home  Missionary  October.  1836. 

2  Julian  At.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  233 


3H 

In  1837,  came  the  hard  times  felt  so  generally  throughout  the 
country.  In  Illinois,  the  price  of  labor,  building  material  and  provi- 
sions increased  100  per  cent.  Flour  rose  to  fifteen  dollars  a  barrel, 
pork  to  ten  dollars  a  hundred  weight,  and  butter  to  fifty-six  cents  a 
pound.1  For  several  years  this  condition  continued  in  the  west.  Gifts 
from  the  east  to  the  Misssionary  Society  fell  off.  As  a  result  of  this 
economic  situation,  the  growth  of  Illinois  received  a  sudden  check. 
It  was  only  in  later  years  that  the  pastors  could  look  back  and  see 
any  good  result  from  that  time  of  trial.  "Adversity,"  they  said,  "  has 
saved  the  West.  It  has  repressed  inordinate  enterprise  and  sobered 
the  aims  of  men ;  it  has  sifted  the  people  and  driven  out  or  kept  away 
many  unprincipled  adventurers  whose  influence  would  have  been 
only  to  corrupt."2  They  also  saw  a  spiritual  gain  in  the  fact  that  the 
churches  were  kept  longer  in  close  connection  with  the  eastern 
churches  by  continued  dependence  on  them  for  support.  The  unity 
of  the  churches  was  thus  preserved  and  the  centrifugal  tendencies  of 
sectarianism  so  prevalent  in  this  new  country  were,  for  the  time  at 
least,  checked. 

By  1842,  the  stream  of  immigration  again  began  to  pour  into  Illi- 
nois. The  center  of  the  state  now  showed  populous  towns.  Spacious 
barns  and  dwellings  appeared  where,  twelve  years  before,  were  only 
the  wolf  and  badger.3  The  year  1843  seems  to  have  been  particularly 
disastrous  for  Illinois.  In  the  summer  there  were  floods,  in  the  win- 
ter extreme  cold  so  that  many  of  the  cattle  died  of  starvation.  There 
was  little  money  in  circulation  and  pastors  would  have  been  in  want 
had  their  only  source  of  supply  been  the  contributions  of  their  little 
churches.  As  it  was,  months  went  by  without  the  sight  of  a  dollar, 
and  even  taxes  went  unpaid.4  But,  by  1846,  settlement  was  pushing 
into  the  open  prairie,  whereas  before,  it  had  kept  to  the  borders  of 
rivers  and  streams  where  the  woodlands  furnished  fuel. 

About  this  time  Illinois  began  to  feel  in  her  turn  the  drain  upon 
her  population  that  she  had  before  inflicted  on  the  states  east  of  her. 
The  frontier  was  now  beyond  the  Mississippi  and  emigrants  from 
Illinois,  previously  not  numerous  enough  to  excite  comment,  now 
attracted  public  attention.  Not  only  adjoining  territories,  but  distant 
Oregon  attracted  them  and  the  missionaries  tried  to  rouse  in  the 
emigrants  the  same  religious  sentiment  that  had  attended  their  own 
coming  to  Illinois.  In  1849,  the  destination  became  California. 
"  Hundreds  of  families  in  Illinois,  Missouri  and  Iowa  are  making 
arrangements  to  push  on "  and,  equally  significant  of  a  change  in 
Illinois,  "  their  places  are  taken  by  settlers  from  the  old  world." 5 

Here  are  brief  descriptions  of  the  effects  on  two  settlements  of  the 
"gold  fever:"  "From  one  village  twenty-five  active  men  are  drop- 
ping everything  else  and  rushing  off  to  the  gold  region,  the  whole 
country  is  run  wild  here,  perfectly  wild."  In  another  promising  set- 


1  Home  Missionary,  December,  1837. 

2  Ibid,  June,  1842. 

3  Home  Missionary,  March,  1842. 

4  Ibid,  April,  1843.     The  family  budget  of  a  missionary  in  1838,  in  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous communities,  was  as  follows:     Rent  and  food,  $300;  girl  at  $2  a  week,  $104;  wood, 
$80;  horse  and  cow,  $100;  postage  and  periodicals,  $50;  clothing,  $200,    Total,  $834. 

5  Home  Missionary,  January,  1849. 


37 

tlement  the  tk  mania  for  California  gold  took  possession  of  the  hearts 
of  men  and  women  so  that  it  would  have  required  but  comparatively 
a  small  amount  of  money  to  have  bought  up  the  whole  settlement." 1 

The  following  description  of  the  setting  out  of  a  company  makes 
the  scene  very  vivid:2  "First  came  the  excitement,  every  report 
eagerly  sought  after — farmers,  mechanics,  merchants  and  doctors  be- 
gan to  think  their  several  pursuits  too  dull  and  prosy.  Then  came 
the  decision — who  will  go?  First  messes,  then  companies,  were 
formed.  Next  came  the  preparation;  everybody  was  busy.  Then 
approached  the  day  of  departure— the  day  was  set,  but  before  it  came, 
train  after  train  of  California  wagons  from  the  other  places  further 
east  began  to  roll  through  our  village  toward  the  far  distant  Pacific. 
Twenty  wagons  from  our  village  and  the  community  immediately 
around  it  were  ready,  averaging  nearly  four  men  to  a  wagon.  Tues- 
day was  the  time  appointed  to  leave,  and  I  gave  notice  that  I  would 
preach  a  Californian  sermon  on  the  afternoon  of  the  Sabbath  preced- 
ing their  departure.  The  day  was  stormy,  but  the  congregation  was 
large.  It  was  a  solemn  meeting.  There  was  a  breathless  stillness 
and  many  a  silent  tear  was  seen  to  fall  from  the  eye  of  the  husband, 
the  wife,  the  son.  or  the  brother.  I  had  provided  myself  with  a 
basket  of  Bibles,  testaments  and  tracts,  and  gave  away  the  testa- 
ments and  tracts  to  those  who  would  carry  them  to  California.  The 
last  we  heard  from  this  company,  they  were  keeping  the  Sabbath 
about  150  miles  on  their  way  toward  the  land  of  gold." 

The  depression  caused  by  migration  was  followed  by  the  depression 
of  "  hard  times.''  A  period  of  floods  again  ruined  crops  in  1851.  and 
it  became  apparent  as  time  went  on  that  wheat  could  not  be  depended 
iipon  as  a  paying  crop.  For  three  years  the  wheat  failed,  both  in 
quality  and  quantity.  Nineteen-twentieths  of  the  farmers  were  said 
to  be  in  debt.  Many  loaned  at  25  per  cent,  and  in  some  communi- 
ties nearly  every  farm  was  offered  for  sale.3  Better  methods  of  agri- 
culture, the  substitution  of  corn  for  wheat,  and  the  opening  of  the 
Illinois  Central  railroad  with  its  "  market  at  every  man's  door," 
brought  better  times,  though  complaints  about  wheat  continued  into 
the  'GOs.  One  witness,  however,  to  the  steadily  increasing  prosperity 
of  the  state,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  communities  were  erecting 
church  buildings,  with  some  outside  help,  even  during  the  years  of 
the  Civil  War. 


1  Home  Missionary,  June,  1849. 

2  Ibid,  October,  1849. 

3  Home  Missionary,  1851 . 


38 


CHAPTER   IX. 


INTERNAL  DIFFICULTIES.     SEPARATION   OF 
THE  CONGREGATIONAL  AND  PRESBY- 
TERIAN  ORGANIZATIONS  IN 
FRONTIER  WORK. 


In  addition  to  these  economic  and  social  factors  which  modified  the 
growth  of  the  pioneer  churches  in  Illinois,  there  were  certain  internal 
complications  arising  from  the  conditions  of  church  organization, 
including  the  connection  with  the  supporting  society  in  the  East, 
which  exercised  an  important  influence  in  the  Congregational  and 
Presbyterian  churches  of  the  West. 

At  first,  all  of  the  churches  founded  by  the  Missionary  Society 
were  in  the  Presbytery  of  Missouri,  which  was  organized  in  1819; 
not  till  1828  was  the  Illinois  Presbytery  organized,  and,  until  1830, 
Indiana,  Illinois  and  Missouri  were  included  in  the  same  Synod. 
The  churches  of  Northern  Illinois  united  in  the  Presbytery  of  Ot- 
tawa in  1834 1  ;but  in  the  same  year  an  association  of  Congregational 
churches  was  formed  in  Western  Illinois  and  another  among  those  of 
the  Fox  river  region.  By  1853  there  were  eight  associations  of  Con- 
gregational churches.  These  facts  of  local  organization  reflect  in  a 
measure  the  difficulties  which  attended  the  cooperation  of  the  two 
denominations  in  the  Home  Missionary  Society,  and  which  led  ulti- 
mately to  separate  denominational  societies. 

In  the  beginning  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians  worked 
together  with  enthusiasm  under  the  "  Plan  of  Union."'  There  was  an 
honest  intention  that  each  local  church  should  adopt  for  itself  its 
own  form  of  policy;  and,  apparently  without  hesitation,  such  men  as 
Salmon  Giddings,  Jeremiah  Porter  and  Aratus  Kent,  though  trained 
to  New  England  Congregationalism,  worked  most  or  all  of  their  lives 
as  Presbyterians.  Till  1834,  the  organization  of  the  churches  was 
wholly  Presbyterian,  and  it  is  claimed  that  the  word  "  Congrega- 
tional" was  rarely  heard  before  1841. 2 

The  first  churches  that  took  to  themselves  the  name  and  organiza- 
tion of  the  Congregational  church  did  so  on  the  initiative  of  the  lay- 
men. The  ministers  were  as  a  rule  greatly  opposed  to  this,  to  the 
introduction  of  what  seemed  a  new  sect,  though  some  of  them  were 

1  Whittlesey,  The  Record  of  Fifty  Years  (Historical  Papers,  Ottawa,  1894). 

2  Home  Missionary. 


89 

becoming  increasingly  attached  to  the  simple  and  flexible  principles 
of  Congregationalism,  believing  that  the  multiplied  sectarian  divi- 
sions were  largely  due  to  too  rigid  and  complicated  systems  of  church 
government.1 

The  Home  Missionary  Society  also  opposed  such  innovation.  In 
1833,  when  a  Congregational  church  was  about  to  be  formed  in  Jack- 
sonville, the  thirty  or  forty  residents  of  the  town  who  were  ready  for 
the  movement,  sought  the  cooperation  of  Mr.  Beecher  and  Mr.  Sturte- 
vant  of  Illinois  College.2  But  these  able  men  considered  such  action 
undesirable  or  inexpedient,  and  the  enterprise  would  have  gone 
through  without  any  countenance  from  them,  except  that  at  the  last, 
the  church  failing  of  the  expected  minister,  Mr.  Sturtevant  was  pre- 
vailed upon  to  officiate  at  the  organization.  When  he  was  at  the 
office  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society  in  New  York  some  time  after 
this,  Mr.  Sturtevant  was  sharply  rebuked  for  the  countenance  he  had 
thus  given  to  Congregationalism.  In  1842,  it  was  said  that  there  was 
no  part  of  the  country  where  greater  harmony  prevailed  between 
Presbyterians  arid  Congregationalists  than  in  northern  Illinois,  and 
a  few  years  later  a  town  in  Morgan  county  was  named  "  Concord,"  to 
indicate  the  state  of  harmony  between  Presbyterians  and  Congrega- 
tionalists.3 

In  1835,  however,  the  trial  of  Rev.  Albert  Barnes,  in  the  East,  led 
in  a  few  years  to  the  division  into  "  Old  School  "  and  "  New  School," 
a  division  in  doctrine  and  sympathy  which  affected  Illinois  churches. 
In  some  places  certain  "  Old  School "  churches  refused  to  grant  let- 
ters of  dismission  and  recommendation  to  "  New  School "  churches. 
At  this  time,  also,  there  arose  in  the  General  Assembly  of  Presbyte- 
rian churches,  opposition  to  the  financial  support  of  "  voluntary 
societies,"  such  as  the  Home  Missionary  Society — called  "  voluntary," 
since  their  organization  was  outside  the  control  of  the  assembly. 
This  matter  occupied  the  attention  of  the  General  Assembly  from 
1834  to  1837.4  The  Assembly  of  1837  called  for  the  abrogation  of  the 
"  Plan  of  Union,"  the  exclusion  of  four  Synods,  and  withdrawal  of 
support  from  the  Home  Missionary  and  Educational  Societies,  on  the 
ground  of  the  preservation  of  peace  and  purity  to  the  Presbyterian 
churches.  A  protest  was  presented  in  the  interests  of  the  400 
churches  then  maintained  by  the  Home  Missionary  Society,  and  in 
behalf  of  the  good  name  and  work  of  these  societies.  It  was  signed 
by  Absalom  Peters,  Ephraim  Cutler,  David  Porter  and  Horace  Bush- 
nell;  but  the  report  was  carried  and  lost  to  the  support  of  the 
•American  Home  Missionary  Society,  the  contributions  of  many  Pres- 
byterian churches.  Some  Presbyterian  support  still  continued,  how- 
ever, in  spite  of  this  formal  action. 

There  was  temporary  misgiving  and  ill-feeling.  "  Extracts  almost 
innumerable  might  be  taken  from  our  missionary  correspondence 
which  illustrate  the  dreadful  evils  of  division,  pastors  driven  away, 
churches  divided."  In  a  short  time,  however,  the  resources  and  work 
of  the  society  were  larger  than  ever.  It  was  nine  years  after  this 


1  Julian  M.  Sturtevant.     An  Autobiography,  194. 

2  Ibid,  195,  207,  210. 

3  Home  Alissionaiy  (Annual  Report),  December,  1848. 

4  Ibid,  1837. 


40 

action  of  the  Presbyterian  Assembly  that  the  first  formal  move  was 
made  by  the  Congregationalists  looking  toward  their  abrogation  of 
the  "  Plan  of  Union."  *• 

In  1846,  the  Congregationalists  held  a  "  Congregational  Conven- 
tion" in  Michigan  City,  their  first  national  meeting.  Here  the 
majority  of  the  delegates  were  from  the  northwest,  and  their  feeling 
was  shown  in  the  resolution  that  "  in  the  judgment  of  this  convention 
the  '  Plan  of  Union '  should  be  dissolved."  It  was  not  set  aside,  how- 
ever, till  1852,  when  the  whole  matter  was  again  discussed  at  a  repre- 
sentative meeting  of  the  whole  Congregational  denomination  in 
Albany.2  The  eastern  delegates,  with  President  Humphrey  of  Am- 
herst,  as  leader,  were  strongly  opposed  to  its  abrogation,  and  only 
yielded  when  thoroughly  convinced  by  the  delegates  from  the  north- 
west that  in  practical  experience  the  "  Plan  of  Union ''  was  not 
accomplishing  the  results  aimed  at.  This  decision  in  no  way  affected 
the  support  of  dependent  churches,  Congregational  or  Presbyterian, 
by  the  society  which  continued  to  give  aid  to  churches  as  it  had  done 
before.  In  1854 3  the  General  Assembly  asked  for- a  ruling  of  the 
Home  Missionary  Society  by  which  it  would  aid  Presbyterian  churches 
in  towns  where  Congregational  churches  already  existed  and  were 
still  receiving  aid.  This  was  refused,  and,  in  1855,  the  assembly  be- 
gan its  own  "  church  extension "  work,  sustaining  Presbyterian 
churches  where  it  saw  fit.  Final  action  was  not  taken  till  1861,  when 
the  General  Assembly  assumed  the  responsibility  of  conducting  its 
own  missions,  and  instituted  a  committee  for  that  purpose.  The  in- 
come of  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society  fell  from  $188,000  to 
$164,000.  This  was  in  1862.* 

The  difficulty  which  led  to  a  final  abrogation  of  the  "  Plan  of 
Union,"  arose  out  of  conditions  in  Illinois.  The  Presbytery  of  Alton 
was  carrying  on  vigorous  missionary  work  for  the  southern  part  of 
Illinois,  a  region  which  had  not  kept  pace  with  the  rest  of  the  state 
in  its  economic,  intellectual  or  moral  progress.  Impelled  by  interest 
in  their  growing  and  commendable  work,  they  had  given  as  generously 
themselves  as  could  be  expected — from  the  year  1856  to  1858  some 
$2,500 — and  had  received  $7,500  from  the  Home  Missionary  Society, 
though  this  Presbytery  no  longer  reported  to  it  or  contributed  to  its 
treasury  and  did  not  wish  the  society  to  commission  its  missionaries. 
This  case,  when  it  came  to  light,  caused  much  feeling.  Religious 
journals  took  up  the  matter,  one  paper  devoting  thirty  columns  to  the 
subject.5  Statements  made  on  one  side  led  to  "  corrections  "  by  the 
other;  one  article  is  entitled,  "thirty  errors  corrected."  Division 
was  the  only  sure  ground  for  peace,  and  it  is  well  that  it  was  accom- 
plished. It  is  well,  however,  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  up  to  1860, 
during  the  formative  years  for  Illinois,  Congregationalists  and  Pres- 
byterians did  work  together  in  Illinois  in  such  a  way  that  it  would  be 
impossible  now  to  divide  the  results  of  their  work  and  ascribe  them 
to  either  body  as  a  definite  source.  Moreover,  the  results  aimed  at 
were  the  same  and  sprang  largely  from  the  same  body  of  ideas.6 

1  Home  Missionary,  (November.  1839). 

2  Historical  Papers  (Ottawa,  1894). 

3  Home  Missionary,  1854. 

.4  Annual  Report  of  Home  Missionary  Society,  1862,  49. 

5  Home  Missionary,  July,  1859;  October,  1859.  6  Home  Missionary,  October,  1859. 


41 


CHAPTEK   X. 


SPECIAL  PROBLEMS  OF  MISSIONARY  WORK 
IN  SOUTHERN  ILLINOIS. 


In  spite  of  the  internal  agitation,  there  was  a  commendable  degree 
of  heartiness,  far-sightedness  and  generosity  in  the  conduct  of  the 
missionary  work.  Nothing  shows  this  better  than  the  efforts  for 
southern  Illinois  to  which  the  Alton  Presbytery  was  so  thoroughly 
devoted.  The  tendency  of  missionaries  to  go  to  the  northern,  western 
and  eastern  parts  of  the  state  as  each  section  in  turn  developed,  re- 
sulted in  an  unfortunate  situation  to  which  Theron  Baldwin,  as  agent 
of  the  society,  called  attention  in  1835:  "  In  the  southern  and  eastern 
side  of  the  state  are  seventeen  Presbyterian  churches,  widely  separa- 
ted, many  destitute,  famishing  and  some  expiring,  supplied  only  by 
four  ministers."  In  1840,  in  thirty-nine  counties  there  were  seven 
ministers,  ten  churches,  and  399  members.1  It  was  fitting  that  the 
churches  opposite  St.  Louis,  where  had  been  the  beginning  of  mis- 
sionary work  in  Illinois,  shoiild  take  the  initiative  in  trying  to  bring 
about  a  better  condition.  Rev.  William  Chamberlain  had  gone  to 
Alton  in  1842.  He  had  for  many  years  been  a  missionary  to  the  Cher- 
okee Indians  under  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  and -he  brought 
new  life  to  the  work.  The  Alton  Presbytery  established  a  "  commit- 
tee of  missions,"  and,  with  the  help  of  the  national  society,  set  to 
work. 

In  1845,  two  missionaries  made  a  tour  of  investigation  and  made  a 
report  for  the  thirteen  counties  forming  the  extreme  southern  part  of 
the  state.  In  this  area  they  found  five  ministers  who  might  claim  to 
be  educated.  Most  of  the  people  were-  Baptists.  Schools  were  rare. 
County  seats  usually  kept  a  feeble  school  open  for  part  of  the  year. 
Many  parents  opposed  having  their  children  taught  lest  they  should 
learn  to  be  bad.  Sunday  schools  and  temperance  societies  were  not 
popular.  The  missionaries  who  went  afterward  to  these  places  found 
a  "general  coldness"  around  them.  Through  the  years  that  followed 
they  sent  to  the  society  exceedingly  doleful  accounts  of  the  state  of 
society  in  southern  Illinois.  If  there  was  a  part  of  Illinois  where  the 
work  of  the  eastern  missionary  accomplished  little,  it  was  here.  The 
country  was  thoroughly  exploited,  its  natural  advantages  set  forth, 
and  New  Englanders,  both  lay  and  cleric,  urged  them  to  come.  The 

1  Home  Missionary,    1840. 


42 

society  commissioned  men  freely,  and,  by  1852,  the  churches  had 
increased  from  ten  to  thirty-two.  The  enterprise  and  industry  brought 
in  by  the  Illinois  Central  railroad,  helped  matters;  but  it  was  hard 
to  keep  men  at  posts  where  they  felt  they  were  accomplishing  so 
little,  where  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  community  were  so 
foreign  to  what  they  most  highly  esteemed.  Just  before  the  Civil 
War,  the  influence  of  the  missionaries  was  greater  there  than  it  had 
ever  been  before,  but  it  was  at  the  expense  of  great  labor  and  in  the 
face  of  great  obstacles.1 

The  missionary's  program  was  rather  a  definite  one.  There  were 
certain  interests  which  he  was  expected  to  promote  in  a  community 
and  forms  of  religious  activity  which  he  was  expected  to  establish. 
His  commission  was  explicit.  In  1830,  its  terms  were  as  follows:  The 
limits  of  his  field  were  defined.  He  must  keep  his  personal  life  be- 
yond reproach.  He  was  charged  to  give  especial  care  to  the  sick  and 
perform  all  pastoral  offices.  He  was  instructed,  in  addition  to  regu- 
lar Sunday  services,  to  hold  weekly  prayer  meetings  and  a  monthly 
"  Concert  of  Prayer  "  for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  He  was  ex- 
pected to  promote  an  interest  in  benevolent  societies,  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  temperance  and  to  promote  Sunday  schools,  Bible  classes,  and 
day  schools.2  To  this  might  be  added  the  general  expectation  in  the 
mind  of  the  community  that  the  missionary  be  "foremost  in  all  the 
moral  movements  of  the  day.  He  must  have  well  digested  views  of 
political  economy,  must  be  able  to  lecture  on  the  history  and  progress 
of  any  science,  must  have  an  opinion  on  all  points  of  theology,  civil 
affairs  or  art."  3 

The  earlier  missionaries  organized  tract  and  Bible  societies  and  a 
few  colonization  societies,  the  then  accepted  form  of  philanthropic 
effort  for  the  negro.  The  effort  to  distribute  Bibles  and  tracts,  in- 
cluding treatises  on  moral  questions  of  the  day  or  reprints  of  suc- 
cessful sermons  and  lectures,  brought  out  the  fact  that  a  large  part 
of  the  population  could  not  read.4  So,  from  1830,  the  establishing  of 
Sabbath  schools  was  an  important  and  popular  measure  whose  main 
purpose  was  to  teach  the  attendants,  old  and  young,  to  read  the  Bible. 
There  was  much  enthusiasm  in  this  work  throughout  the  northwest 
and  a  large  part  of  the  population  joined  the  schools,  either  as  teach- 
ers or  learners.  Sabbath  schools  were  important  forerunners  of  day 
schools.  At  Vandalia,  members  of  the  legislature  visited  the  Sab- 
bath  school,  and  an  "  individual  of  distinction  "  from  the  South  was 
delighted  with  it,  declaring  that  he  should,  on  his  return  home,  found 
such  schools.  The  prominent  topic  in  reports  for  1830  and  1831,  is 
the  Sabbath  schools.  Supplementary  Bible  classes  were  also  estab- 
lished, often  running  through  the  week. 

A  distinct  sentiment  arose  as  to  the  advantage  of  living  in  towns 
that  one  might  avail  himself  of  such  means  of  self-improvement,  and 
immigrants  were  advised  against  settling  on  farms  remote  from  each 
other.  They  were  urged  to  follow  the  early  New  England  method  of 
settling  in  towns  that  they  might  have  schools,  churches,  and  social 
intercourse,  and  thus  save  the  first  generation  from  growing  up  in 

1  Home  Missionary,  December,  1845;  August,  1851;  November,  1852;  1853  (Annual  Report) . 

2  Home  Missionary,  May,  1830.  3  Ibid,  1852.  4  Ibid,  August,  1830. 


43 

ignorance.1  One  is  not  surprised  to  find  the  "  Lyceum."  "  We  select 
some  of  the  branches  of  knowledge  and  by  an  exhibition  of  facts,  en- 
deavor to  awaken  and  instruct  the  public  mind.  One  man  talks  over 
the  subject  of  geography;  another  takes  up  the  subject  of  common 
school  education;  another,  agriculture;  and  another,  the  history  of 
the  United  States.  We  open  and  close  our  meetings  with  prayer  and 
endeavor  to  give  every  subject  a  religious  bearing."  2 

The  missionaries  felt  the  need  of  temperance  reform.  People  on 
the  frontier  were  much  given  to  excessive  drinking  of  very  strong 
liquors.  A  changed  sentiment  in  regard  to  the  moral  aspect  of  this 
question  came  to  religious  minds  in  the  120s  and  '30s.  The  Collins 
family  of  Collinsville  were  so  moved  by  a  sermon  of  Lyman  Beecher's 
on  the  subject  that  they  gave  up  their  lucrative  business  of  distilling 
whiskey  and  destroyed  their  still,  cutting  it  into  bits  that  it  might 
never  be  used  again.3  Till  1842,  temperance  reform  and  instruction 
was  a  part  of  the  church's  work.  Temperance  societies  were  com- 
mon, often  with  total  abstinence  pledges.  Later,  these  societies 
became  popular  social  organizations  and  were  no  longer  directed  by 
the  churches.  A  proof  of  the  sensitiveness  of  the  church  on  the 
whole  matter  is  shown  by  the  standing  rule  of  the  Congregational 
church  of  Champaign,  founded  in  1854:  "This  church,  for  reasons 
too  apparent  to  require  mentioning,  cannot  receive  into  its  commun- 
ion anyone  who  manufactures,  buys,  sells  or  uses  as  a  beverage,  in- 
toxicating drinks,  whether  they  be  distilled  or  fermented  liquors,  nor 
can  this  church  fellowship  anyone  who  owns  tenements  and  rents 
them  for  the  purpose  of  the  sale  or  manufacture  of  liquors,  nor  can 
we  receive  into  or  retain  within  our  communion  any  person  who  sells 
corn  or  other  grain  to  the  distiller,  or  his  known  agent — and  brethren 
are  expected  to  make  suitable  inquiries  respecting  that  matter — or  in 
any  other  way  directly  aids  or  cooperates  with  dealers  in,  or  manufac- 
turers of,  ardent  spirits  in  this  unrighteous  traffic." 


1  Home  Missionary,  1836.  2  Ibid,  April.  1833. 

3  W.  H.  Collins,  Congregationalists  in  Eastern  Illinois.     (Historical  Papers,  Ottawa,  1894). 


44 


CHAPTER  XI. 


ADVERSE  SENTIMENT. 


Naturally  enough,  this  programme  of  instruction  and  organization 
did  not  meet  with  entire  approval  from  the  heterogeneous  population 
of  Illinois.  The  eastern  missionary  and  the  settlers  who  followed 
him,  the  forms  and  customs  in  which  they  were  bred,  and  the  ideas 
and  institutions  they  tried  to  establish,  were  thoroughly  repugnant  to 
many  of  the  settlers  from  the  states  other  than  New  England.  We 
have  a  clash  of  sentiment  and  opinion  over  almost  every  public  enter- 
prise. It  took  fifty  years  of  living  together  and  a  great  subject  of 
common  sympathy,  like  the  devotion  to  national  unity  brought  out 
by  the  Civil  War,  to  make  the  State  of  Illinois  as  united  in  sentiment 
as  it  is  today.  These  older  differences  were  very  exasperating  to  both 
parties. 

It  is,  perhaps,  impossible  to  give  a  fair  view  of  the  way  in  which 
the  easterner  appeared  to  the  earlier  settlers  of  Illinois  who  had  long 
preceded  him  from  the  South.  He  wTas  very  ready  to  express  his  criti- 
cisms in  rude  and  forcible  speech,  but  he  was  not  given  to  leaving  a 
written  record  of  his  feelings.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Easterner 
could  express  himself  with  clearness  and  force  on  the  deficiencies  of 
his  neighbor  and  could,  moreover,  get  his  opinion  published  and  pre- 
served. We  can,  however,  make  out  some  of  the  traits  with  which 
the  word  "  Yankee "  was  associated  and  which  served  to  make  it  a 
term  of  opprobrium.  The  Yankee  was  shrewd  and  his  main  purpose 
was,  by  hook  or  crook,  to  make  money;  while  the  Illinoisan  was  an 
"  independent,  self-made,  generous  son  of  the  West.""  The  Yankee 
peddler,  desirable  as  his  goods  were,  afforded  evidence  of  this  petty 
money-making  spirit.  As  a  neighbor,  the  Yankee  was  considered 
inhospitable  and  penurious.  Often  he  did  not  so  much  as  offer  re- 
freshment to  the  passing  stranger  or  urge  a  neighbor  to  a  meal,  even 
if  the  meal  hour  was  at  hand.  Worse  than  all  this  was  his  intolera- 
ble self-conceit,  which  made  it  possible  for  the  wife  of  a  missionary  to 
ask  a  full  grown  woman  if  she  knew  who  made  her.  The  Illinoisan 
was  sensitive  to  the  constantly  implied  disapproval  of  himself  and 
his  manners  and  customs.1 

The  Easterner  who  displayed  Unitarian  tendencies  or  a  smattering 
of  scientific  knowledge,  shocked  the  Illinoisan's  religious  sentiments, 
which  were  profound.  Occasionally,  a  missionary  realized  how  deep 


1  Home  Missionary,  April,  1841. 


45 

was  their  religious  feeling.  "  I  judge,"  says  one,1  "  that  the  people 
of  Egypt  have  sometimes  been  underrated  because  they  have  been 
dressed  in  homespun.  It  is  true  we  have  vice  here  and  rustic  vice, 
and  yet  we  have  not  so  much  upstart  infidelity  as  in  some  other  ap- 
parently moral  and  religious  communities.  Many  a  person  will  shoot 
a  deer  or  a  turkey  on  a  Sabbath  and  swear  like  a  sailor  when  angry, 
drink  a  glass  of  grog  with  their  neighbors,  and  run  their  horses  a 
quarter  for  a  wager,  who  would  feel  shocked  at  the  thought  of  treat- 
ing religion  with  disrespect  or  denying  its  divine  origin." 

It  needed  a  tact  and  adaptability  that  was  not  always  present  to 
win  one's  way  with  this  people.  That  veteran  worker,  William 
Chamberlain,  once  uttered  his  complaint:  ''  There  is,  in  my  opinion,  a 
great  deficiency  in  educating  ministers  for  this  western  country,  and 
how  that  deficiency  is  to  be  remedied  I  know  not.  Ministers  for  the 
West  should  be  well  educated  in  what  we  call  common  sense.  They 
should  understand  human  nature  as  exhibited  in  daily  life.  For  the 
want  of  this,  many  otherwise  well  educated  and  good  men  fail.  The 
most  illiterate  preachers  draw  from  them  their  congregations  and  de- 
prive them  of  their  means  of  usefulness.  The  people  of  the  West 
are  generally  shrewd  and  well  versed  in  common  sense,  and  their 
ministers  have  a  good  stock  of  scientific  knowledge;  but  the  space 
between  them  and  the  people  is  too  wide  for  the  power  of  attraction 
and  they  never  come  together.  The  result  is,  the  minister's  reports 
will  be  filled  with  dark  accounts  of  the  deep  ignorance  and  degrada- 
tion of  the  people;  and  the  people  will  be  laughing  among  themselves 
about  the  minister  for  his  want  of  common  sense.  I  think  it  would 
be  better  for  us  to  say  less  about  the  ignorance  of  the  people  and  do 
more  toward  instructing  them." 

On  the  missionary's  part,  nevertheless,  there  could  be  at  the  best 
but  profound  pity  for  the  ignorance  of  these  earlier  settlers.  He 
found  their  religious  life  ministered  to  by  illiterate  ministers,  some- 
times representatives  of  cults  of  which  he  had  never  heard.  From 
the  beginning  he  distrusted  the  tempests  of  religious  emotion  which 
swept  over  the  people  because  they  had  so  little  permanent  effect. 
As  early  as  1812,  J.  F.  Schermerhom,  after  his  trip  to  the  West  with 
Samuel  Mills,  wrote  thus  of  a  revival  in  Ohio:  "  Tha  Methodists  say 
there  has  been  a  very  great  revival  of  religion  among  them,  as  also  do 
the  Baptists.  From  the  best  information  that  we  could  obtain  from 
eye  witnesses  of  this  work,  there  is  great  reason  to  believe  that  it  was 
principally  terror  and  fear  which  induced  numbers  to  join  those 
societies;  for  this  work  began  and  ended  with  the  earthquakes  in 
those  countries  and  the  whole  strain  of  preaching  by  the  Baptists  and 
Methodists  was.  that  the  end  of  all  things  was  at  hand  and  if  the 
people  were  not  baptized,  or  did  not  join  a  society,  there  was  no  hope 
for  them.  This  may  be  deemed  uncharitable  by  some,  but  not  when 
it  is  considered  that  the  Methodists  in  that  region  require  no  evidence 
of  holiness  of  heart  to  become  members  of  their  society,  and  that  the 
religious  experiences  of  many  consist  only  in  dreams  and  visions  or 
the  remarkable  suggestion  of  some  alarming  texts  of  scripture,  and 
after  that  some  which  afford  great  comfort."  Forty  years 2  later  there 

1  Home  Missionary,  January,  1848.  2  Ibid,  April   1850. 


46 

was  the  same  difficulty.  ''  The  effect  of  the  senseless  harangues  and 
consequent  spurious  revivals  with  which  we  are  cursed  and  of  which 
the  people  are  very  fond,  is  similar  to  the  raging  fire  that  sweeps 
through  the  forest,  deadening  and  blackening  everything  which  it 
leaves  unconsumed."  In  1857,1  a  missionary  in  southern  Illinois 
describes  a  complete  "  indifferentism  "  a  stupidity  and  brutality  even 
in  their  lack  of  feeling  over  the  death  of  friends  which  he  thinks  due 
to  the  fact  that  in  their  religion  a  "wild  excitement  is  the  all  in  all." 

In  this  connection  Mr.  Schermerhorn's  characterization  of  the  in- 
habitants in  1812  is  interesting.  He  says,  "  Those  from  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania,  particularly  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  descent,  are 
very  ready  to  unite  in  promoting  the  establishment  of  schools  and  in 
supporting  the  gospel,  whilst  those  of  German  extraction,  together 
with  emigrants  from  Maryland,  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  are  too  fre- 
quently regardless  of  both,  and  too  often  cherish  that  high-toned  and 
licentious  spirit  which  will  suffer  neither  contradiction  nor  opposi- 
tion and  which  is  equally  inconsistent  with  civil  and  religious  order." 
He  went  on  to  describe  the  three  leading  denominations.  "  The 
Baptists,"  he  wrote,  "were  generally  illiterate.  Learning  is  rather 
ridiculed  than  desired.  Against  the  salaries  of  ministers  they  are 
clamorous,  and  they  denominate  Presbyterian  ministers  as  '  fleecers 
of  the  flock.'  As  a  body  they  deny  the  morality  of  the  Sabbath  or 
Lord's  day.  *  The  manner  of  the  Methodist 

preaching  very  much  resembles  that  of  the  Baptists;  is  very  contro- 
versial and  most  bitter  against  Calvinists.  They  rail  very  much 
against  the  practice  of  the  Presbyterians  receiving  pay  for  preaching, 
calling  them  hirelings,  but  most  unreasonably,  for  their  salaries  are 
more  certain  and,  in  general,  greater  than  those  against  whom  they 
speak.  The  Presbyterians  are  noted  for  their  strict  observance  of 
the  Sabbath.  They  are  the  most  intelligent  part  of  the  community, 
lovers  of  order  and  promoters  of  knowledge;  the  most  ready  to  sup- 
port schools,  the  Gospel  and  missionary  and  Bible  societies." 

The  New  Englander  brought  with  him.  the  Puritan  views  of  observ- 
ance of  the  Sabbath  and  was  shocked  at  the  disregard  of  that  day  by 
the  older  settlers  of  Illinois.  "  The  native  preachers  were  largely 
itinerants  and  communities  did  not  expect  a  religious  service  every 
Sunday,  so  often  the  day  was  given  over  to  rough  sports,  and  re- 
ligion left  to  the  enthusiasm  of  the  'big  meeting;'  so  also,  the 
woman  who  washed  out  a  garment,  or  did  a  bit  of  ironing  on  Sunday, 
offended  the  religious  sentiment  of  the  missionary." 

The  native  preacher,  often  a  man  of  sense  and  integrity,  even  if 
very  illiterate,  sometimes  used  his  strong  influence  over  the  people  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  eastern  missionary.  In  his  view,  the  man 
filled  with  learning  was  so  much  the  less  filled  with  spiritual  power. 
He  was  "  machine-made."  The  schools  turned  them  out  all  alike.  A 
common  proverb  was:  "He  has  learning  enough  for  two  ministers." 
The  missionary  was  constantly  held  up  to  scorn  because  he  received 

1  Home  Missionary,  September,  1857. 


47 

a  salary.  It  seemed  to  them  that  a  man  could  not  be  truly  filled  with 
the  spirit  of  God  and  accept  pay  for  doing  the  work  inspired  by  Him. 
" Judas,"  they  said,  "  was  the  first  to  take  pay." 

Rev.  J.  M.  Sturtevant  tells  of  a  sermon  which  he  heard  on  the  third 
Sabbath  after  his  arrival  in  Jacksonville.  Through  a  mistake,  for 
which  no  one  was  to  blame,  the  Presbyterians  and  Methodists  found 
themselves  together  in  the  court  house.  Each  expected  to  hold  ser- 
vices, but  as  the  Methodists  had  already  begun  Mr.  Sturtevant  and 
his  people  joined  the  congregation,  The  minister  was  the  famous 
Rev.  Peter  Cartwright,  whose  life  work  was  certainly  commendable; 
but  such  was  the  bitterness  of  the  sectarian  and  sectional  spirit  of 
the  time  that  he  took  occasion  to  make  a  bitter  attack  on  Calvinism, 
caricaturing  it  and  holding  it  up  to  ridicule;  and,  in  the  face  of  the 
young  enterprise  for  a  college  in  Jacksonville,  he  took  particular 
pains  to  ridicule  a  college  education,  repeating  the  old  saying:  "  I 
have  never  spent  four  years  of  my  life  in  rubbing  my  back  against 
the  walls  of  a  college." 1 

The  native  was  much  opposed  to  agitation  in  behalf  of  temperance 
societies.  Strong  liquors  were  used  freely  and  there  was  much 
drunkenness.  A  definite  crusade  against  intemperance  seemed  an 
infringement  of  personal  rights,  and  the  warmest  opposers  of  temper- 
ance were  said  to  be  ministers  and  church  members.  The  following 
notes  taken  from  the  anti- temperance  lecture  of  a  native  preacher  are 
typical  of  the  times  :2  "  The  temperance  society  is  productive  of  more 
harm  than  good.  It  slanders  those  who  do  not  fall  in  with  it.  Its 
iocuments  were  charged  with  falsehoods.  The  state  legislatures  are 
taking  up  the  subject  and  it  is  high  time  to  give  the  alarm.  The 
heroes  of  the  revolution  were  not  temperance  men.  The  subject  of 
temperance  is  not  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  though 
the  framers  were  wise  men.  It  has  religious  and  political  designs. 
Massachusetts  is  in  danger;  its  legislators  are  almost  all  temperance 
men.  This  society  gives  all  the  liquor  to  the  clergymen  and  physi- 
cians, and  that  is  popery.  The  Law  of  Moses  was  not  against  drink- 
ing. The  more  institutions  there  are,  the  more  money  will  be  wanted. 
The  temperance  society  sows  the  seeds  of  discord  in  the  church  and 
community.  The  curse  of  God  is  now  resting  on  Ireland  in  the  shape 
of  a  famine,  because  so  many  Irish  signed  the  pledge."  To  the  East- 
erner, on  the  other  hand,  the  man  who  pretending  to  be  a  spiritual 
leader  could  yet  hobnob  with  his  people  at  the  grocery  and  tavern  and 
join  with  them  in  drinking,  seemed  utterly  disgusting. 

Sunday  schools,  missionary  societies,  and  even  day  schools,  met 
with  the  same  opposition.  Even  when  education  came  in  some  de- 
gree to  be  desired,  the  people  had  not  been  trained  to  that  united 
public  action  which  would  have  secured  it  quickly.  Often  a  commu- 
nity was  in  existence  twenty  or  thirty  years  before  there  was  any 
school  house.  Many  of  the  people  could  not  read  and  their  preachers 
did  not  teach  and  insist  that  they  have  schools  and  instructors 
This  suggestive  report  was  made  in  1848  to  the  Missionary  Society 


1  Julian  M.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  161 . 

2  Home  Missionary,  July,  1847. 


"  I  know  no  other  community  in  the  state  where  a  missionary  of  your 
society  has  labored  one  year  that  is  not  supplied  with  a  good  week- 
day school  and  a  Sunday  school,  and  I  know  of  but  few  which  have 
not  been  thus  supplied  that  have  such  schools."  In  1852  there  was 
not  a  school  in  Pulaski  or  Alexander  counties.  In  1856  southern 
counties  could  not  produce  teachers  who  could  pass  the  examinations 
required  by  law.1  On  one  occasion  a  school  house  was  donated  to  a 
community  by  a  man  of  some  means,  but  with  the  distinct  provision 
that  no  eastern  teacher  should  be  employed  to  teach  in  it  - 

This  spirit  of  prejudice  and  lack  of  public  enterprise  marked  many 
of  the  undertakings  of  the  earlier  days.  Illinois  College  first  applied 
to  the  legislature  for  a  charter  in  1880.  Prejudice  against  the  "  Yan- 
kees "  and  fear  of  ecclesiastical  corporations  defeated  the  char- 
ter.3 Said  one  member:  "  If  they  granted  a  charter  at  all,  he  was  in 
favor  of  restricting  the  corporation  to  one  quarter  section  of  land:  for 
otherwise,  those  college  men,  with  their  immense  funds,  would  buy 
up  new  land  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state  and  then  put  on  ten- 
ants at  will  and  finally  sway  the  political  destiny  of  Illinois.  So, 
also,  they  opposed  taxation  for  common  schools  on  the  ground  that  it 
worked  injustice  to  those  without  children  or  those  patronizing  pri- 
vate schools.  The  bill  for  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  was 
opposed,  because  it  would  open  an  easy  entrance  to  "  Yankees  "  and 
the  state  would  be  flooded  with  them.4 

Two  citations  in  regard  to  the  Mexican  War  will  show  the  conflict- 
ing sentiments  of  eastern  and  native  preachers  on  that  subject.  The 
native  preacher  said  it  would  do  the  Mexicans  good  to  give  them  a 
sound  drubbing,  and  concluded  with  terrible  denunciations  upon 
those  who  spoke  against  the  war;  while  the  missionary  lamented: 
"  Shame,  indeed,  that  there  should  be  a  Massachusetts  and  a  New 
England  [How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O,  Lucifer,  son  of  the 
morning]  regiment  in  this  war.  But  when  we  look  at  the  hordes 
which  Illinois  and  Missouri  have  poured  forth,  we  see  where  Satan's 
seat  is." 5 

Of  course,  this  division  came  out  clearly  in  the  agitation  over 
slavery.  In  1850,  a  spiritual  appeal  came  from  a  Presbytery  in  Mis- 
souri; they  wanted  men  of  the  right  stamp,  "rough  and  ready,"  who 
could  preach  at  all  times,  let  slavery  alone,  leave  their  eastern  preju- 
dices at  home.  Western  people  are  born  and  grow  up  in  excitement 
and  their  religion  must  have  more  or  less  of  that  ingredient."  To 
this  appeal  there  was  the  equally  spirited  reply:  "Our  Western 
friends  may  as  well  understand  first  as  last,  that  the  Eastern  churches 
have  a  pretty  well  defined  idea  of  what  sort  of  religion  they  wish  to 
propagate." 

1  Home  Missionary,  May.  1848;  July,  1852;  May,  1856.  2  Ibid,  August,  1847. 

3  Historic  Morgan  and  Classic  Jacksonville. 

4  Patterson ,  Early  History  in  Southetn  Illinois  (Fergus* Historical  Series). 

5  Home  Missionary,  May  and  December,  1847. 


CHAPTER   XII. 


PURITANISM  AND  THE  SLAVERY  ISSUE. 


The  moral  agitation  that  filled  the  country  in  regard  to  slavery,  was 
manifest  in  these  years  in  Illinois.  There  was  never  any  uncertainty 
as  to  the  attitude  of  the  eastern  missionary  or  his  denomination  upon 
this  subject;  but  at  first  the  missionary  was  not  so  outspoken  as  he 
became  later.  At  times  even  there  was  a  deprecating  tone  toward 
the  hot-headed  opponent  of  slavery  and  a  tenderness  and  sympathy 
for  the  slave  owner.  These  words  from  a  missionary  in  Missouri, 
written  in  1829,  exhibit  this  feeling:  "  Let  me  mention  what  I  fear 
will  be  a  permanent  obstacle  to  a  regular  and  competent  support  of 
the  ministry  in  this  state.  This  obstacle  is  found  in  the  existence  of 
slavery.  Slaveholders  purchase  extensive  plantations,  and  in  this 
way  the  inhabitants  are  kept  in  a  scattered  state.  This  evil,  it  is 
true,  will  not  exist  in  towns,  and  many  find  a  partial  remedy  in  a 
minister's  dividing  his  time  between  two  or  three  settlements;  but 
such  a  state  of  things  will  always  diminish  the  effect  attending  the 
dispensation  of  God's  word.  I  am  aware  that  I  have  now  touched  a 
subject  of  very  delicate  nature.  Slavery,  perhaps,  exists  in  its  mild- 
est form  in  this  state,  but  ti  is  still  a  great  evil  and  one  that  is  most 
sensibly  felt  by  slaveholders  themselves.  How  is  this  evil  to  be  re- 
moved? Not  by  denouncing  the  slaveholder  as  an  unprincipled  and 
unfeeling  man.  This  only  tends  to  aggravate  the  difficulty.  It  must 
be  removed  by  action,  and  not  by  declamation.  The  people  at  the 
east  must  feel  that  there  is  a  duty  devolving  on  them  in  relation  to 
this  subject.  The  evil  is  attached  to  us  as  a  nation,  and  if  it  is  ever 
removed  we  must,  as  individuals  of  this  nation,  contribute  our  pro- 
portion. When  an  owner  of  slaves  tells  me  that  he  knows  and  feels 
that  slavery  is  a  crying'  sin  and  that  he  will  freely  relinquish  his  slaves, 
or  even  that  he  will  relinquish  one-half  their  value  on  condition  that  he 
be  compensated  for  the  other  half  and  provisions  be  made  for  their  trans- 
portation, I  feel  that  he  has  made  a  generous  proposal,  and  I  cannot 
charge  him  with  all  the  guilt  of  slavery,  though  he  may  continue  to 
be  a  slaveholder.  Some  remarks  have  lately  appeared  in  the  eastern 
papers  which  will  be  hailed  by  many  at  the  West  and  South  as  indi- 
cations of  the  increasing  prevalence  of  just  views  on  this  subject  and 
as  harbingers  of  good  to  the  degraded  blacks.  Let  it  be  acknowl- 
edged by  the  inhabitants  of  the  free  states  that  slavery  is  a  national 
evil  and  that  they  are  bound  in  duty  to  contribute  to  its  removal,  and 
there  are  thousands  at  the  South  and  West  who  will  join  them  heart 
and  hand  in  the  great  work  of  emancipation." 1 

1  Home  Missionary,  February',  1829. 

—4  H 


50 

For  many  years  few  among  the  missionaries  cared  to  own  the  name 
of  "  abolitionist."  Yet  in  spite  of  this  moderate  position  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery  the  missionary  found  his  principles  so  at  variance  with 
those  of  the  people  about  him  in  southern  communities  that  his  work 
languished.  In  Missouri,  and  the  southern  states  generally,  where 
much  money  had  been  spent  and  long  continued  effort  had  been 
made  by  the  Home  Missionary  Society,  it  generally  became  evident 
that  the  struggle  was  a  losing  one.  So  much  opposition  was  encoun- 
tered that  for  years  the  work  declined,  and  it  was  practically  cut  off 
when,  in  1856,  the  society  decided  to  grant  no  appropriations  to  the 
churches  containing  slaveholding  members.1  At  this  time  the  situa- 
tion was  reviewed  and  it  was  shown  that  auxiliary  societies  and  eccle- 
siastical bodies  in  the  South  and  Southwest  had  withdrawn  their 
support  from  the  main  society,  less  than  $2,000  having  been  received 
from  these  states  in  the  preceding  year.  In  southern  churches  more 
slaveholders  were  being  received  into  the  membership  than  in  former 
years,  and  ministers  who  owned  slaves  were  advanced.  Liberty  of 
speech  was  no  longer  allowed  and  the  ministry  must  even  be  cham- 
pions of  the  "  institution."  The  missionaries  in  slaveholding  states 
were  decreasing  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to  increase  their  numbers.  In 
Illinois  there  were  many  to  sympathize  with  the  southern  cause,  and, 
in  some  localities,  a  majority  took  the  part  of  the  South.  This  was 
especially  true  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state  and  in  the  river 
towns.  Yet  there  was  generally  a  chance  for  the  growth  and  victory 
of  contrary  opinion. 

Not  all  of  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  came  from  the  East.  In  the 
early  years  the  northwest  was  the  only  region  into  which  the  south- 
erner could  migrate  when  he  became  discontented  with  the  conditions 
of  society  which  he  found  becoming  fixed  about  him.  While  many 
of  the  settlers  were  merely  poor,  and  so  without  slaves  and  therefore 
content  to  settle  in  a  region  where  slavery  was  forbidden,  others  came 
from  principle.  Many  a  Scotch  Presbyterian  came  to  Illinois  from 
the  Carolinas  for  conscience  sake.  These  are  facts,  of  which  there 
are  necessarily  few  records,  but  they  are  none  the  less  true  and  inter- 
esting. It  is,  however,  a  matter  of  record  that  "  the  first  settlement 
formed  within  its  bounds,  of  emigrants  from  the  United  States,  was 
made  in  Morgan  county  in  1781  by  James  Moore,  who  was  a  native 
of  Maryland,  but  came  to  Illinois  from  Western  Virginia.  In  1785-6 
this  settlement  was  strengthened  by  a  number  of  families  from  the 
same  region.  They  were  opposed  to  slavery  and  took  up  their  long 
line  of  march  for  these  wild  regions  that,  themselves  and  their  pos- 
terity, might  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  country  unembarassed  by 
slavery.  *  *  The  first  Protestant  church  was  a  Baptist 

church  at  New  Design,  formed  in  1796.  This  church  was  originally 
formed  with  rules  opposed  to  slavery,  and,  in  1803.  adopted  a  rule 
that  no  person  guilty  of  slavery  could  be  admitted  to  membership. 
It  was  constituted  by  Rev.  Josiah  Dodge,  originally  from  Connecti- 
cut, who  was  one  of  the  first  two  ministers  who,  with  their  congre- 
gations, separated  from  the  Baptists  in  Kentucky  on  account  of 

1  Home  -Missionary,  December,  1856. 


51 

slavery."1  The  Union  church  of  Edwards  county  was  opposed  to 
slavery  and  moved,  as  a  church,  from  the  South,  though  its  leader, 
Rev.  Stephen  Bliss,  was  from  New  England.2 

In  the  contest  of  1823  over  a  new  constitution  which  should  permit 
slavery,  the  few  New  England  missionaries  made  themselves  felt  by 
joining  with  laymen  in  the  work  to  preserve  a  free  state.  Only  two 
of  the  five  newspapers  stood  for  freedom,  and  one  of  these  was  edited 
by  Hiram  Eddy  of  New  England.  Rev  Thomas  Lippincott,  an  early 
missionary  from  New  England,  wrote  fiery  handbills,  and  contributed 
to  one  of  these  papers  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  while  Rev.  Stephen 
Bliss,  just  referred  to,  was  elected  to  the  Senate  on  the  anti-slavery 
issue.  Another  powerful  anti-slavery  worker  of  those  days  was  Rev. 
J.  M.  Peck,  missionary  of  the  Massachusetts  Baptist  Society,  and 
later  an  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society.  His  constant  travel- 
ling gave  him  opportunity  to  spread  anti-slavery  ideas.  "  His  plan 
of  organizing  the  counties  by  a  central  committee,  with  branches  in 
every  neighborhood,  was  carried  out  by  his  own  exertions  and  per- 
sonal supervision,  and  was  greatly  instrumental  in  saving  the 
state." 3  Another  writer  probably  refers  to  the  same  plan  when  he 
says  that  J.  M.  Peck  organized  an  anti-slavery  society  in  St.  Clair 
county,  with  which  fourteen  societies  of  other  counties  became  affili- 
ated.4 

When  this  crisis  was  past,  there  was  for  many  years  a  hopeful  atti- 
tude on  the  part  of  the  missionaries  on  the  subject  of  the  overthrow 
of  slavery.  It  was  felt  that  the  spread  of  education,  the  growth  of 
missions,  the  efforts  of  colonization  societies  would  do  away  with  the 
evil.  Since  Illinois  herself  was  not  facing  the  question,  and  since 
she  had  put  an  end  to  efforts  to  introduce  slavery  within  her  borders, 
the  subject,  for  some  ten  or  fifteen  years,  did  not  occupy  the  public 
mind  so  much  as  might  now  be  supposed.  Missionaries  made  their 
frequent  reports  to  the  home  office,  dwelling  fully  on  all  their  difficul- 
ties and  discouragements  and  extremely  sensitive  to  the  moral  atmos- 
phere about  them;  but  little,  in  Illinois,  was  said  about  slavery. 
Then  in  the  '30s,  1836-7  especially,  came  the  attempt  of  the  South  to 
prevent  free  speech,  a  time  noted  for  mobs  and  riots.  Illinois,  as  a 
border  state,  was  doomed  to  feel  the  evil  of  the  troubled  times  and  to 
contribute  her  victim. 

Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  was  born  at  Albion,  Maine,  in  1802,  the  son  of 
Rev.  Daniel  Lovejoy,  a  Congregational  minister.  He  graduated  at 
Waterville  College,  Maine,  and  went  to  St.  Louis  as  school  teacher 
and  editor.  Here  he  had  a  religious  experience  which  led  him  to  return 
East  for  theological  training  at  Princeton,  and,  on  his  return  to  St. 
Louis  in  1833,  he  was  commissioned  as  missionary  to  that  city  by  the 
Home  Missionary  Society.  In  addition  to  preaching,  he  edited  and 
published  the  St.  Louis  Observer  as  an  organ  of  the  Presbyterians 
of  Illinois  and  Missouri.  His  character  was  earnest  and  transparent, 


1  Home  Missionary,  March.  1835.    (Statement  by  Rev.  Theron  Baldwin,  indebted  to  Rev. 
J.  M.  Peck.) 

2  History  of  the  Congregational  Association  of  Southern  Illinois  (1892). 

3  W.  H   Brown,  Eaily  History  of  Illinois  (Fergus'  Historical  Series). 

4  Patterson,  Early  Society  in  Southern  Illinois. 


52 

but  not  by  nature  combative  or  pugnacious.  Bold  and  fearless  he 
was,  nevertheless  amiable,  affectionate,  and  lovable.1  In  his  writings 
he  was  mild,  temperate  and  gentlemanly.  In  his  reports  to  the  so- 
ciety he  had  more  to  say  of  the  dangers  from  Catholicism  than  of  those 
from  slavery.2  In  his  paper  he  declared  himself  in  favor  of  gradual 
emancipation,  and  disclaimed  the  name  abolitionist.  After  1835  he 
was  not  in  the  employ  of  the  missionary  society.  Probably  his  duties 
as  editor  absorbed  all  his  time.  During  his  service  as  missionary  he 
had  been  moderator  of  the  Presbytery  of  Illinois.  It  was  in  1836 
that  he  published  an  account  of  the  burning  of  a  negro  at  St.  Louis. 
Moved  by  the  horror  and  inhumanity  of  the  scene,  he  sharply  criti- 
cised the  community  which  allowed  such  a  deed.  Upon  this,  a  mob 
destroyed  his  press  and  he  moved  to  Alton,  across  the  river,  in 
Illinois. 

In  the  contest  that  followed,  Lovejoy  acted  on  the  advice  of  his 
ministerial  friends.  After  his  second  press  was  destroyed,  he  pro- 
posed to  his  friends  that  he  withdraw;  but  at  the  meeting  of  the 
synod  in  November,  1837,  at  Springfield,  where  one  evening  the  situ- 
ation was  thoroughly  discussed,  with  but  one  dissenting  voice,  his 
friends  persuaded  him  to  remain,  feeling  that  the  great  principle  of 
the  freedom  of  the  press  was  at  stake.  The  third  press  was  given  by 
sympathizing  friends  in  Ohio,  in  this  contest  for  freedom  of  speech. 

Meanwhile,  in  accordance  with  plans,  a  meeting  was  called  to  con- 
vene in  Alton,  November,  1837,  to  form  a  state  anti-slavery  society. 
This  call  was  signed  by  fifty-six  of  the  residents  of  Quincy,  forty-two 
from  Galesburg,  thirty-two  from  Jacksonville,  twenty-three  from 
Alton,  twenty  from  Springfield  and  seventy-two  from  other  places. 
It  was  held  the  week  after  the  meeting  of  Synod  and  Mr.  Lovejoy's 
friends  were  urged  to  be  present.3  Among  those  who  gathered  at 
Alton  were  Edward  Beecher  from  Illinois  College  and  Asa  Turner 
from  Quincy.  The  meeting  was  captured  by  the  friends  of  slavery 
and  the  audience  heard  a  tirade  against  "  Yankees,"  home  missiona- 
ries, Sunday  schools,  abolitionists,  and  temperance  societies.  After 
the  adjournment  of  the  convention,  it  became  known  that  the  new 
press  was  expected,  and  President  Beecher  remained  to  see  what 
would  happen.  The  press  came  at  night  and  Mr.  Lovejoy  and  Mr. 
Beecher  went  to  the  landing,  superintended  its  storing  in  the  ware- 
house, and  guarded  it  till  morning.  In  the  morning  Mr.  Beecher 
left  for  Jacksonville.  On  the  following  night,  the  warehouse  was 
attacked  by  the  mob  and  Mr.  Lovejoy  killed,2 

This  was  an  event  to  stir  the  country.  It  won  to  the  cause  of  the 
abolitionists  the  fiery  eloquence  of  the  brother,  Owen  Lovejoy  in  the 
pulpit  and  as  member  of  Congress,  while  the  town  of  Alton  went 
through  a  season  of  deep  moral  agitation  and  became  a  center  of 
anti-slavery  effort.4  But  a  group  of  residents  of  this  city,  led  by  Dr. 
Haskell  of  Massachusetts,  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth,  removed  to 
Rockford,  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state,  in  order  to  be  in  a  region 

1  Juhan  M.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  222. 

2  Home  Missionary,  December.  1835. 

3  Juhan  M.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  223.  4  Ibid,  224. 

5  J.  E.  Roy,  Fifty  Years  of  Home  Missions;  II.  Tanner,  Martyrdom  of  Lovejoy. 


53 

where  pro-slavery  sentiment  was  not  predominant.  Unfortunately, 
these  events  in  Alton  had  unhappy  results  for  Illinois  Col- 
lege. The  excitement  aroused,  the  hatred  generated,  were  directed 
toward  Mr.  Beecher  and  the  college.  These  feelings  were  entertained 
not  alone  by  the  mob,  but  by  people  of  wealth,  social  standing,  and 
even  of  religious  reputation.  The  newspapers  of  St.  Louis  which 
had  wide  circulation  in  southern  Illinois,  were  intensely  hostile  in 
their  opposition  to  Illinois  College.  For  a  time  there  was  fear  of 
attack  on  the  college  buildings  and  of  personal  violence  to  Mr. 
Beecher.  In  time  these  prejudices  were  lived  down,  but  for  years 
there  were  constant  annoyances  in  the  vicinity  of  the  college.1 

Quincy,  another  river  town,  went  through  a  similar  experience  as 
regards  the  principle  at  issue.  This  city  had  had,  to  its  great  advan- 
tage, a  strong  spiritual  leader  in  Asa  Turner,  of  the  "  Yale  Band," 
who  had  located  there  in  1830.  In  four  years  his  church  had  become 
self-supporting  and  the  town  experienced  "  a  most  clear  and  decided 
moral  improvement."  2  Many  Easterners  flocked  to  Quincy  and  there 
was  a  strong  sentiment  of  sympathy  with  the  other  centers  of  eastern 
thought  like  Jacksonville  and  Springfield.  Asa  Turner  organized 
tract,  Bible  and  temperance  societies,  and  developed  out-stations 
which  soon  became  independent  churches,  His  aim  was,  "  a  mission- 
ary and  half  a  dozen  Christian  families  for  every  county." 

The  first  church  building  in  Quincy  gained  the  name  of  the  "  Lord's 
Barn  "  from  its  general  appearance.  In  1836,  some  people  in  Quincy 
wished  to  hold  an  anti-slavery  meeting  in  this  church;  but  the  mere 
design  caused  a  great  ferment  in  the  town  and  country  round  about 
and  threats  were  made  that  no  such  meeting  should  be  held.  As  the 
day  approached  many  men  rallied  to  the  defence,  not  so  much  from 
their  love  of  anti-slavery  sentiments  as  because  they  believed  in 
freedom  of  speech.  Under  the  raised  platform  they  stored  guns, 
clubs,  poles,  etc.  The  speakers  were  the  pastors  of  the  Methodist  and 
Baptist  churches.  As  soon  as  the  speaking  began  the  mob  began  to 
throw  brick  and  stone  through  windows.  Joseph  T.  Holmes,  who  was 
both  deacon  and  magistrate,  and  later  a  Congregational  minister,  led 
the  counter  charge,  and  a  very  successful  charge  it  was,  dispersing 
the  mob  altogether.  After  this,  the  better  elements  of  society  ruled 
in  Quincy.3 

The  carrying  out  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  gave  deep  offence  to  the 
opponents  of  slavery.  Interesting  testimony  to  the  intense  feeling 
of  the  Puritan  New  Englanders  in  Illinois  on  this  subject  is  found  in 
"  The  Underground  Railroad,"  by  Professor  Wilbur  H.  Siebert. 

Mr.  Siebert  says:  "  In  general,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  majority  of 
helpers  in  the  north  were  of  Anglo- American  stock,  descendants  of 
the  Puritan  and  Quaker  settlers  of  the  eastern  states  or  of  southern- 
ers that  had  moved  to  the  northern  states  to  be  rid  of  slavery."  The 


1  Julian  M.  Sturtevant.    An  Autobiography,  225. 

2  Home  Missionary,  February,  1838. 

3  Manuscript  History  of  Quincy  church  by  Thomas  Pope,  in  library  of  Chicago  TheoloR- 
cal  Seminary. 


54 

Scotch  communities  were  also  centers  of  Underground  Railroad  oper- 
ations as,  for  example,  those  of  Randolph  and  Washington  counties 
in  Illinois.1 

In  Illinois,  the  southerners  who  gave  such  assistance,  are  traced 
for  the  most  part  to  members  of  a  Presbyterian  church,  which,  under 
the  leadership  of  Rev.  J.  Rankin,  had  first  settled  in  Brown  county, 
Ohio,  because  of  their  views  of  slavery.  Some  of  these  families  came 
to  Bond  county,  Illinois,  about  1820,  and  later,  about  1830,  moved 
into  Putnam  and  Bureau  counties,  forming  the  little  church  at  Union 
Grove,  which  Aratus  Kent  discovered  in  1829,  and  to  which  he  called 
the  attention  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society,  which  thenceforth 
took  it  under  its  protection.  Those  who  went  to  Bureau  county 
united  with  the  Princeton  colony.  These  people  were  extremely 
active  in  their  assistance.  No  complete  figures  exist  as  to  the  num- 
ber of  fugitives  assisted;  but  one  member  of  this  band  of  southerners 
testified  to  the  assisting  of  thirty-one  men  and  women  in  six  weeks 
time  as  the  highest  record  reached.2 

Few  of  those  at  the  north  who  assisted  runaway  slaves,  imbued  as 
they  were  with  respect  for  law.  cared  to  entice  slaves  from  their  mas- 
ters, or  to  serve  as  guides  in  the  first  steps  of  their  escape.  On  the 
ground  of  humanity  and  the  pity  for  the  needy,  enjoined  by  the 
Bible,  northerners  would  give  aid  at  their  door  and  even  speed  them 
on  their  way.  The  few  who  incited  slaves  to  leave  their  masters  were 
conspicuous,  and  there  was  usually  some  ground  for  unusual  bitter- 
ness of  feeling  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in  their  cases. 

Illinois  had  one  conspicuous  example  of  a  man  who  was  willing  to 
aid  in  abducting  slaves.  This  was  David  Nelson,  who,  himself  a 
southerner,  an  avowed  atheist  and  a  slaveholder,  had,  on  conversion, 
become  a  Christian  minister  and  located  in  Missouri.  Here  he  en- 
countered so  much  opposition  that  he  had  to  take  hasty  flight.  Find- 
ing refuge  in  Quincy  he  allied  himself  with  the  New  Englanders  and 
their  church  there.  In  the  spring  of  1840  he  instigated  two  of  the 
pupils  in  his  mission  institute  to  cross  the  river  into  Missouri  and 
aid  some  slaves  in  escaping.  The  students  were  captured  and  taken 
to  the  jail  at  Palmyra  and  tried.  There  was  no  legal  evidence,  as 
slave  testimony  was  not  admissible,  but  they  were  condemned  to 
twelve  years  imprisonment.  By  their  conduct  they  shortened  their 
term  more  than  one-half,  and  there  was  a  remarkable  revival  of  re- 
ligion while  they  were  there  among  the  prisoners.  One  of  these 
young  men  afterward  went  as  missionary  to  Africa.  Later,  the  main 
building  of  the  Mission  Institute  was  burned  by  a  mob  who  came 
from  the  Missouri  side  of  the  river  for  the  purpose.3 

Everywhere  in  northern  Illinois  the  fugitive  slave  found  friends 
and  helpers.  The  motives  for  this  help  to  the  slave  are  to  be  found 
in  the  teachings  of  the  New  England  churches.  Indeed,  the  men 
most  prominent  in  these  efforts  were  vigorous  adherents  of  those 
churches.  Owen  Lovejoy,  the  Congregational  minister,  proclaimed  in 
Congress,  on  being  taunted  as  a  "nigger  stealer":  "  Owen  Lovejoy 

1  W.  H.  Siebert,  The  Underground  Railroad,  90,92.  2  Ibid,  41. 

3  Thomas  Pope,  Manuscript  History  of  Quincy  Church:  Siebert,  The  Underground  Rail- 
road, 155,  156. 


00 

lives  at  Princeton,  Illinois,  three-quarters  of  a  mile  east  of  the  vil- 
lage, and  he  aids  every  fugitive  that  comes  to  his  door  and  asks  it." 
Philo  Carpenter,  the  real  founder  of  the  First  Congregational  church 
in  Chicago,  guided  not  less  than  200  fugitives  to  Canada,  finding  ves- 
sels to  carry  them  to  its  shore.  Dr.  Richard  Eells,  whose  case  for 
secreting  a  slave  was  in  litigation  for  ten  years  and  who  was  finally 
fined  and  paid  the  costs  of  the  trial,  was  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Quincy  church.1 

Professor  J.  B.  Turner,  while  at  Illinois  College,  assisted  in  at 
least  one  such  rescue.  James  Collins,  the  lawyer  who  defended  those 
charged  with  breaking  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  was  of  the  Collins 
family  of  Collinsville,  famous  for  their  uncompromising  stand  on  all 
moral  questions.2 

Scrutiny  of  the  map  given  by  Mr.  Siebert,  showing  the  lines  of  the 
Underground  Railroad,  reveals  the  suggestive  fact  that  most  of  the 
towns  given  on  those  lines  were  early  occupied  by  New  Englanders 
and  their  churches.  Often  the  name  of  a  station  given  on  this  map 
is  simply  that  of  the  man  giving  aid,  but  where  a  place  is  named  it  is 
apt  to  be  a  New  England  church  center.  Thus  Springfield,  with  its 
church  founded  in  1830,  was  the  converging  point  for  three  lines:  (1) 
through  Alton  (1831)  (the  dates  are  those  of  the  founding  of  churches 
by  the  missionary  society)  and  Reno;  (2),  White  Plains,  Jersey ville 
(1835),  Waverly  (1843);  (3),  Quincy  (1831),  Adams,  Jacksonville 
(1829).  From  Springfield  a  line  extended  north  to  Galesburg  (1853) 
through  Farmington  (1841);  but  the  usual  route  seems  to  have  been 
by  stage  to  Ottawa  (1834),  thence  through  Northville  (1835)  to  Chi- 
cago. Lines  also  passed  from  Jacksonville  and  Springfield  through 
Delavan,  Tremont  (1841),  Dillon,  Washington  (1835),  Metamora 
(1840),  Magnolia  (1851),  Granville  (1831),  and  Peru  (1843),  to 
Ottawa. 

Galesburg  (1853)  was  an  especially  active  station  on  the  Under- 
ground Railroad  for  fugitives  from  Missouri  through  Quincy  (1831), 
Mendon  (1845),  Carthage  (1835),  Augusta  (1837>,  Plymouth  (1840), 
La  Harpe  (1848),  and  then  by  the  old  state  road  to  Chicago  with  sta- 
tions at  Knox ville  (1835),  Osceola,  Pawpaw  (1844),  Sugar  Grove 
(1843)  and  Aurora  (1840).  In  the  northwestern  part  of  the  state 
there  was  a  line  conducting  fugitives  to  points  on  the  lake  farther 
north  than  Chicago.  The  fugitives  taking  this  route  passed  around 
Missouri,  crossing  Iowa  and  then  through  New  Windsor.  Andover 
(1850),  Genesee  (1839).  Erie,  Prophetstown,  Lyndon  (1840),  Sterling 
(1842),  Lee  Center  (1852),  and  Dixon  (1856).  Another  line  entering 
the  state  at  Port  Byron  (1851),  after  passing  Hillsdale,  joined  this 
northern  route.3 

From  the  history  of  Putnam  county,  located  in  the  north-central 
part  of  the  state,  something  of  the  origin  and  method  of  conducting 
such  work  appears.  Also,  earnest  orators  like  Owen  Lovejoy, 
Ichabod  Codding  and  others,  encouraged  the  people  in  the  different 
towns  to  organize  routes.  Such  was  the  sense  of  the  need  of  secrecy 

1  Siebert,   The  Underground  Railroad,  107,  147,  278. 

2  Eatnes,  Historic  Morgan  and  Classic  Jacksonville. 

3  Siebert,  The  Underground  Railroad. 


56 

and  caution  that  few,  even  of  those  actively  engaged  in  the  work, 
knew  anything  of  agents  along  the  entire  line,  being  definitely  posted 
only  as  to  those  stations  immediately  next  to  them  on  either  side. 
The  chief  thought  each  agent  had  was  to  hurry  the  fugitives  along 
beyond  all  possibility  of  capture.  The  fugitives  who  were  helped 
along  by  means  of  this  regular  though  secret  line  did  not  begin  to 
appear  till  about  ]  840.  They  came  mostly  from  Missouri  and  Ken- 
tucky, and  they  averaged  on  this  one  line  thirty  or  more  per  year.1 

By  the  early  '40s,  the  deep  feeling  on  the  subject  of  slavery  is 
apparent  in  missionary  reports,  though  there  is  still  a  certain  hesi- 
tancy to  call  the  evil  by  name.  This  was  left  to  the  more  outspoken 
abolitionists.  In  1841  we  have  these  testimonies  to  the  feeling  of  the 
missionaries:  '•  It  is  evidently  a  general  feeling  among  the  missiona- 
ries in  the  West  that  our  country  is  rapidly  advancing  to  a  critical 
point  in  her  history.  Letters  from  all  parts  of  the  great  field,  written 
without  any  concert  of  the  authors,  either  expressly  assert  or  imply 
that  a  struggle  is  now  going  on  which  must  ere  long  terminate  for 
weal  or  woe  to  our  beloved  America.  The  missionaries  seem  to  agree 
in  their  belief  that  the  eastern  churches  do  not  appreciate  the  critical 
nature  of  the  present  opportunity  to  save  the  land."  - 

The  following  citation  came  from  an  Illinois  missionary:  "The 
crisis  we  are  approaching  as  a  nation,  it  is  feared,  is  not  begun  to  be 
understood  by  the  mass  of  people  of  God.  Not  the  moral  purity  of 
the  West  alone,  but  the  preservation  of  the  whole  community  is  at 
stake.  Our  country  is  in  danger  while  Christians  all  over  the  land 
are  suffering  everything  but  Christianity  to  take  root  in  the  West." 
Another  writes:  "  We  have  reached  an  appalling  crisis.  Our  ablest 
patriots  are  looking  out  on  the  deep,  vexed  with  storms,  with  great 
foreboding  and  failing  of  heart  for  fear  of  the  things  that  are  coming 
upon  us."3 

It  is  not  claiming  too  much  to  say  that  the  New  England  element 
led,  and,  guided  by.  the  leaders  in  the  New  England  churches,  origi- 
nated and  fostered  the  expression  of  anti- slavery  feeling  in  anti- 
slavery  societies  and  political  parties.  The  motives  were  supplied  in 
the  religious  teachings  of  the  Puritan  churches.  The  leaders  in  the 
anti-slavery  societies,  and  later  in  the  anti-slavery  political  parties, 
were  men  who  were  members  and  leaders  in  those  churches,  though 
they  were  not  politicians.  These  years  of  political  and  moral  agita- 
tion afforded  the  best  educational  training,  even  in  times  of  tempo- 
rary, failure  for  the  time,  when  success  finally  did  come. 

The  first  ,anti-slavery  society  was  formed  in  a  New  England  settle- 
ment in  Putnam  county  in  1835,  and  by  1838  there  were  thirteen 
societies  in  northern  Illinois.4  We  have  already  seen  that  Elijah  P. 
Lovejoy,  Edward  Beecher  and  Asa  Turner  were  leaders  in  organizing 
the  state  anti- slavery  society. 

1  Spencer  Ellsworth,  Record  of  the  Olden  Time:  or,  Fifty   Years  on  the  Prairie  (Lacon,  Illi- 
nois, 1880). 

2  Home  Missionary,  November,  1841;  December,  1841. 

3  Home  Missionary,  November  and  December,  1841. 

4  T.  C.  Smith,  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties  in  the  North-west.     \Hanard  Historical 
Studies),  14. 


57 

Before  1839,  these  societies  confined  their  efforts  mainly  to  a  moral 
and  religious  agitation,  and  it  was  such  agitation  that  led  to  the  for- 
mation of  the  succeeding  anti-slavery  political  parties,  and  that 
prompted  the  old  parties  as  well  to  anti-slavery  action.  Besides  the 
propagation  of  principles,  this  anti-slavery  society  of  Illinois  sent 
petitions  to  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  and  the  slave  trade  wherever 
its  constitutional  jurisdiction  permitted.  Feeling  the  impulse  toward 
political  interference  appearing  elsewhere  in  the  country  in  1839,  the 
society  voted  "that  every  abolitionist  who  has  a  right  to  vote  be 
earnestly  entreated  to  lose  no  opportunity  to  carry  his  abolition  prin- 
ciples to  the  polls." 

In  1840,  the  Liberty  party  was  in  the  field  with  a  ticket  headed  by 
Birney  arid  Earle.  The  State  Anti-slavery  Society  of  Illinois,  in 
convention  at  Princeton,  decided  on  a  course  of  neutrality;  but  the 
men  in  favor  of  a  third  party  held  a  separate  meeting,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  David  Nelson,  and  agreed  to  support  the  Liberty  candidates. 
The  result  was  the  tiny  vote  of  157.  The  center  of  agitation  was 
Adams  county,  which  gave  forty-two  votes.  This  was  double  the 
vote  of  the  northeast  counties  which  later  became  comparable  in 
anti-slavery  influence,  to  the  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio.  This  is 
ascribed  to  the  influence  of  the  murder  of  Lovejoy,  but  it  should  be 
noted  that  Adams  county  was  also  the  seat  of  David  Nelson's  Mission 
Institute  and  the  Quincy  church  so  recently  incensed  by  mob  inter- 
ference. It  was  not  until  the  next  presidential  election  in  1844  that 
the  Liberty  Party  was  thoroughly  organized  in  Illinois.  This  party 
sprang  directly  from  the  old  anti-slavery  societies  which,  in  Illinois, 
were  found  in  clusters  of  communities  where  northern  settlers  pre- 
dominated. Its  purpose,  like  that  of  its  successors,  was  to  form  a 
permanent  northern  party,  and  it  relied  for  growth  on  the  spread 
of  anti-slavery  principles. 

In  1841  the  State  Anti-slavery  Society,  in  its  meeting  at  Lowell, 
openly  advocated  independent  nominations;  but  the  Liberty  Party 
made  but  one  nomination,  that  of  Frederick  Collins,  for  Congress  in 
the  third  congressional  district.  In  1842  it  nominated  candidates  for 
Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor,  C.  W.  Hunter  of  Madison  county 
and  Frederick  Collins;  but,  in  1843,  there  were  candidates  for  Congress 
from  all  the  districts,  except  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  state. 
By  this  time  the  northeastern  part  of  the  state  had  come  to  that 
leadership,  which  it  afterwards  held.  "  Nothing  is  so  stimulating  to 
a  party  as  to  have  some  district  in  which  it  is  generally  victorious  to 
which  in  any  circumstances  it  may  reasonably  look  for  support."  l 

It  has  been  claimed  that  as  the  moral  effects  of  the  anti-slavery  so- 
cieties came  to  be  supplemented  by  political  methods,  the  leadership 
fell  to  "laymen,"  to  the  "American  man  of  affairs"  in  the  country  at 
large.2  This,  however,  was  not  the  case  in  Illinois.  When  the  lead- 
ership passed  from  the  hands  of  David  Nelson,  it  fell  to  Owen  Love- 
joy,  who  for  the  next  fourteen  years  was  the  leader  and  personification 
of  Illinois  abolitionism,  "  a  zealous,  persistent  agitator,  eloquent  in 
speech,  radical  and  sometimes  bitter  to  the  point  of  virulence,  but 

1  Smith,  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties,  47,  52,  301,  304. 

2  Smith,  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties,  18. 


58 

capable  of  inspiring  the  greatest  respect  and  confidence  in  the  anti- 
slavery  men  of  the  northeast  counties."  He  was  a  favorite  delegate 
to  the  National  Conventions,  a  favorite  candidate  for  Congress  from 
northern  Illinois ;  but  he  was  during  all  this  time  a  Congregational 
minister.  A  native  of  Maine,  educated  at  Bowdoin  College  and 
Bangor  Theological  Seminary,  he  preached  for  a  short  time  at  the 
Presbyterian  church  in  Alton  and  then  went  to  the  Congregational 
church  at  Princeton,  where  he  was  pastor  from  1888  to  1855,  the 
years  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Liberty,  Free  Soil,  and  Free  Democratic 
parties.  He  preached  later,  also,  in  the  First  Congregational  church 
of  Chicago.  His  boldness  and  courage  in  politics  was  equalled  by  his 
boldness  in  the  pulpit.  All  his  congregation  did  not  like  his  anti- 
slavery  views,  and  on  one  occasion,  when  he  saw  some  leaving  the 
church,  he  said:  "Brethren,  I  see  some  of  you  don't  like  my  anti- 
slavery  doctrines ;  but  I  am  going  to  preach  them  till  you  do  like 
them,  and  then  preach  them  because  you  like  them."  Another  in- 
stance was  when  a  saloon  was  opened  in  Princeton  with  a  sign,  "Hole 
in  the  Wall,"  and  Owen  Lovejoy  preached  from  Ezekiel  viii,  7-10, 
congratulating  the  owner  on  his  appropriate  sign.  The  saloon  was 
soon  closed.1 

Of  the  other  acknowledged  leaders  in  the  political  movement,  Fred- 
erick Collins,  who  was  a  favorite  anti-slavery  candidate,  was  one  of 
the  live  sons  of  Deacon  William  Collins  who  founded  Collinsville. 
All  had  been  in  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher's  church  in  Litchfield,  Connecti- 
cut, and  were  staunch  upholders  and  promoters  of  the  Puritan 
cause.2  Dr.  Richard  Eells,  who  was  a  candidate  of  the  Liberty  party 
for  Governor  in  1846,  was  deacon  in  the  Quincy  Congregational 
church.  He  was  prominent  in  a  long  law  case  growing  out  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Dr.  Charles  Volney  Dyer,3  who  was  the  Free 
Soil  candidate  for  Governor  in  1848,  was  a  native  of  Clarendon,  Ver- 
mont, and  a  graduate  of  Middlebury  College.  Ichabod  Codding,3  who 
lectured  extensively  on  Anti-slavery,  especially  on  the  Kansas-Ne- 
braska issue,  and  who  "was  a  power  in  the  organization  of  the 
Republican  party,"  also  studied  at  Middlebury  College  and  became  a 
Congregational  minister.  He  held  pastorates  in  Princeton,  Lockport 
and  Joliet. 

Zebina  Eastman,  the  editor  of  the  Anti-slavery  papers,  "  The  Ge- 
nius of  Liberty  "  and  "  The  Western  Citizen,''  and  easily  the  leader 
in  this  field  of  anti-slavery  agitation,  was  a  native  of  North  Amherst, 
Massachusetts.  From  1842  to  1861  he  made  his  home  in  Chicago. 
His  wife  has  recently  testified  to  the  unpopularity  he  incurred  as 
editor  of  "  The  Western  Citizen  ":  "  From  the  windows  of  her  hum- 
ble home  on  the  corner  of  Madison  and  Dearborn  streets,  she  often 
saw  her  neighbors  use  tongs  to  remove  the  objectionable  copies  of 
the  abolitionist  paper  left  on  their  doorsteps."  He  and  his  wife  were 
leaders  in  the  movement  by  which,  in  1852,  forty-eight  members  of 
the  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Chicago  withdrew  from  that  church 
and  organized  the  Plymouth  Congregational  church.  Their  reason 

1  Thomas  Pope,  Manuscript  history  of  the  Quincy  Church. 

2  Smith,  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties,  63. 

3  Bateman  and  Selby,  Historical  Encyclopedia  of  Illinois, 


59 

for  so  doing  was,  that  they  did  not  believe  that  the  Presbyterian 
church  had  taken  a  sufficiently  bold  stand  on  the  side  of  freedom  for 
the  slave.1 

With  these  acknowledged  leaders  in  Illinois  who  served  as  candi- 
dates, speakers,  and  publishers  of  papers  and  hand -bills  all  so  defi- 
nitely allied  with  the  Congregational  churches,  one  cannot  say  that 
in  Illinois  the  "  clerical  anti-slavery  forces  "  were  so  involved  in  sec- 
tarian troubles,  that  they  had  to  leave  the  leadership  of  anti-slavery 
matters  to  others.2 

At  the  National  Liberty  Convention  in  1844,  at  Buffalo,  C.  V.  Dyer 
was  a  vice  president  and  Owen  Lovejoy  a  secretary.  In  1846,  the 
Liberty  Party  polled  the  highest  vote  in  Illinois,  with  the  main  inter- 
est centering  on  the  candidacy  of  Lovejoy  for  Congress  in  the  fourth 
congressional  district.  With  the  year  1848  arose  the  issue  of  territo- 
rial slavery  and  the  Liberty  Party  gave  place  to  the  Free  Soil  Party. 
Lovejoy  served  on  a  committee  at  the  Convention  of  Free  Soilers  in 
Buffalo,  August,  1848,  when  Van  Buren  was  nominated  for  the  Presi- 
dency. Northern  Illinois  was  enthusiastic  for  the  new  movement, 
and  the  total  vote  of  15,774 — three  times  the  largest  vote  of  the  Lib- 
erty Party — came  largely  from  the  northeastern  counties.  The  Free 
Soil  Party,  however,  rapidly  declined  in  Illinois.  The  combinations 
and  coalitions  of  that  party  facilitated  a  rapid  disintegration  and  did 
not  satisfy  the  desires  of  the  anti-slavery  leaders. 

With  the  compromise  of  1850,  reappeared  the  religions,  moral,  non- 
partisan  anti-slavery  agitation  induced  in  Illinois,  especially  by  the 
opposition  in  the  northern  counties  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  In 
July,  1850.  a  Northern  Christian  Convention  was  held  in  Chicago 
with  representatives  from  the  slave  states.  Owen  Lovejoy  was  promi- 
nent in  its  deliberations,  and  the  convention  insisted  on  the  religious 
character  of  its  anti-slavery  action.  In  1851  there  was  a  drawing  to- 
gether of  the  old  anti-slavery  men  for  political  action,  a  return  to  first 
principles,  and  the  name  "  Free  Soil "  was  generally  abandoned  for 
that  of  Free  Democracy.3 

In  the  same  year  a  convention  was  called  at  Granville  and  a  new 
society  was  formed  on  religious,  moral  and  political  grounds,  of  which 
J.  H.  Collins  was  made  president.  The  language  and  methods  of 
the  early  years  of  anti-slavery  agitation  reappeared.  In  1852,  at  the 
last  National  Convention  of  Free  Soilers,  or  Free  Democratic  Party, 
when  John  P.  Hale  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency,  Lovejoy  was 
the  representative  from  Illinois.  Illinois  gave  9,966  votes  to  Hale, 
including  the  votes  of  many  clergymen  and  professional  men  as  well 
as  young  men  who  cast  their  first  votes  under  the  influence  of  the 
anti-slavery  reaction  produced  in  northern  Illinois  by  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law, 

With  the  passage  in  1854  of  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  Bill,  aboli- 
tionists, Liberty  men  and  Free  Democrats  were  ready  to  unite  in  a 
new  northern  anti-slavery  party;  and  in  that  year  the  Republican 
Party  was  successfully  organized  in  the  two  northern  districts  of 

1  Chicago  Legal  Nevus  (December  6,  1902),  XXXV,  135. 

2  Smith,   The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties,  18,  70. 

3  Smith,   The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties,  144,  156,  225-229,  244. 


60 

Illinois,  with  Lake  county  as  the  "  focus  of  anti-slavery  sentiment." 
The  efforts  of  Lovejoy  and  Codding  to  create  a  state  organization  by 
a  convention  at  Springfield,  failed  for  lack  of  the  cooperation  of  the 
anti- slavery  Whigs.  A  few  years  after  this  the  successes  of  the  Re- 
publican party  placed  Lovejoy  in  Congress,  when  he  gave  up  his 
regular  pastoral  work  and  the  field  of  his  activity  passed  largely  from 
Illinois  to  the  national  capital. 

Meanwhile,  the  Home  Missionary  Society  and  its  friends,  as  they 
became  more  outspoken,  used  the  facts  of  the  existence  of  slavery 
and  its  attendant  evils  as  one  more  reason  for  the  greatest  possible 
effort  to  extend  the  work  of  the  eastern  churches  and  the  principles 
held  by  them.  In  1844,  in  the  annual  report  of  the  society,  slavery 
is  named  for  the  first  time  as  one  of  the  leading  hindrances  to  the 
growth  of  the  churches  in  the  West  and  South:  "Another  obstacle 
and  one  of  increasing  magnitude  which  may  well  fill  the  heart  of  the 
philanthropist  with  deep  concern,  is  the  existence  of  that  horrible 
anomaly  in  American  institutions — slavery— covering  so  large  a  por-- 
tion  of  our  territory  and  enthralling  more  than  two  and  one-half  mil- 
lion souls,  made  in  the  image  of  God,  in  a  bondage  worse  than  Egypt- 
ian, that  prevents  the  most  direct  and  effectual  efforts  for  their  sal- 
vation." l  In  this  same  report  a  chance  sentence  shows  how  the 
thought  of  disunion  was  then  even  in  men's  minds:  "Admit  that  our 
Union  may  not  continue ;  its  disruption  would  only  increase  our  w^ork 
and  call  more  loudly  for  the  intensest  efforts." 

The  Mexican  War  so  outraged  the  sentiments  of  the  society's 
officials  that  they  were  willing  to  publish  letters  which  before  they 
had  thought  wise  to  suppress:  " Much  public  attention  has  recently 
been  given  to  the  enlargement  of  our  national  domain,  and,  in  con- 
nection with  this,  to  the  probable  extension  of  slavery  over  large 
sections  of  the  territory  which  has  been,  or  may  be,  annexed  to  our 
country.  To  show  how  slavery  affects  the  progress  of  evangelical 
religion  in  the  communities  where  it  exists,  the  following  letters  from 
different  states  are  given :  First — '  Were  this  a  free  state  I  would 
not  falter  a  moment,  but,  looking  to  God  for  assistance,  would 
go  forward.  As  it  is,  I  have  many  fears.  Slavery  here  is  strong.  It 
affects  every  nerve  and  fibre  of  society.  Not  a  single  one  of  them 
that  I  have  heard  of  can  read  the  Bible,  and  there  are  not  a  half 
dozen  of  them  that  make  any  pretensions  to  piety.  They  are  almost 
never  called  in  to  be  present  at  family  worship.  I  know  of  no  way 
in  which  they  are  instructed.  I  do  not  know  of  a  single  master  or 
mistress  that  ever  teaches  them  any  systematic  religious  truths.  I 
do  not  see  a  cloud  as  big  as  a  man's  hand  that  portends  their  emanci- 
pation. I  could  not  say  a  syllable  to  the  slaves  themselves  in  private 
without  setting  in  motion  a  train  of  opposition  that  would  soon  drive 
me  from  the  state.  The  masters  are  nearly  as  inaccessible  as  the 
slaves.  They  are  sensitive  and  suspicious  to  a  very  great  degree. 
Second — '  In  this  state  this  institution  keeps  200,000  immortal  beings 
in  deep  ignorance.  Ninety-nine  huiidredths  of  them  receive  no  in- 
struction, not  even  in  a  Sunday  school.  In  almost  in  every  part  of 
the  South  where  there  is  no  positive  law  forbidding  their  being 

1  Home  Missionary,,  June,  1844. 


61 

instructed,  public  sentiment  amounts  to  a  prohibition  equally  effect- 
ive. If  a  minister  should  preach  much  to  them,  he  is  liable  to  be  sus- 
pected as  an  abolitionist.'  Third — 'Scattered  population,  due  to  the  ag- 
ricultural system,  prevents  schools  and  instruction  of  children.  Leads 
also  to  ignorance  of  white  children  who  cannot  be  sent  away.  A  free 
school  system  has  never  flourished.  Churches  are  few  and  feeble. 
This  condition  has  exiled  many  of  our  best  ministers  to  the  free 
states.'  Fourth — 'You  are  already  aware  that  many  devoted  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel  have  left  this  and  other  states,  because  of  the 
patriarchal  institution.' " 

In  the  '50s,  with  the  agitation  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  came  freer 
expression  of  opinion.  In  1853,  an  able  paper  in  the  Home  Mission- 
ary, enumerated  as  "Three  Dangers  to  American  Institution,"  arising 
out  of  American  prosperity :  The  influx  of  foreigners,  the  growth  of 
slavery,  and  the  increase  of  territory  by  annexation.  Under  the  last 
point  the  writer  justified  the  annexation  of  Louisiana  by  national 
interest,  and  the  annexation  of  Florida  by  universal  patriotism;  but, 
from  the  annexation  of  Texas,  he  claimed  many  evils  had  resulted, 
chief  among  them,  war;  while  the  addition  of  New  Mexico  and  Cali- 
fornia had  aroused  great  sectional  animosity.  He  goes  on  to  say: 
"•  The  interests  of  the  annexation  are  determined  almost  solely  by  the 
interests  of  slavery.  Cuba,  Hayti,  and  the  neighboring  states  of 
Mexico,  and  even  the  distant  Sandwich  Islands,  are  all  viewed 
through  this  medium.  We  cannot  in  our  present  condition  make 
another  stride  in  annexation  without  fearfully  augmenting  our  most 
imminent  and  threatening  dangers." l 

Meanwhile,  the  society  was  rather  sharply  called  to  account  by  its 
constituency  for  what  seemed  to  them  an  inconsistent  policy  in-  con- 
tinuing to  send  funds  to  slave  states.  A  resolution  adopted  by  the 
Congregational  church,  in  Champaign,  shows  the  feeling.  They 
voted  "  to  make  no  contributions  to,  or  countenance  in  any  way,  any 
society  upholding  slavery."  2 

The  society  attempted  a  justification  of  its  policy:  "  While  it  may 
not  be  accomplishing  all  it  could  wish  for  the  removal  of  this  great 
evil,  it  is  doing  much.  Some  things  which  have  been  suggested  it 
does  not  attempt,  because  they  do  not  seem  to  the  society  or  to  the 
great  mass  of  judicious  persons,  to  be  right  or  proper.  For  example, 
it  does  not,  as  some  would  have  it,  wholly  withdraw  from  slave  states. 
It  does  not,  as  others  advise,  make  the  exclusion  of  slaveholders  from 
communion  a  condition  of  missionary  aid  and  thus  interfere  with 
the  rights  of  the  churches  to  define  their  own  terms  of  membership. 
But  it  bears  an  open  and  unembarrassed  testimony  against  slavery ; 
it  ranks  it  among  the  chief  evils  with  which  the  Gospel  must  grapple; 
it  sustains  no  ministers  in  slave  states  who  are  implicated  in  this  sin. 
it  claims  as  the  right  and  duty  of  missionaries  so  to  bring  the  Gospel 
to  bear  on  this  subject  that  the  moral  sense  of  their  people  shall  be 
awakened  and  enlightened  and  they  may  be  led  to  free  themselves 
from  its  guilt.  When  the  missionary  in  fulfillment  of  this  duty  en- 
counters opposition  and  obloquy,  he  is  sustained  by  the  sympathy 


1  Home  Missionary,  May,  1853,  by  Rev.  L.  P.  Hickok,  of  Union  College. 

2  Minutes  of  the  Congregational  Chutch,  Champaign,  Illinois. 


62 

and  pecuniary  aid  of  the  society  as  long  as  there  is  hope  of  useful- 
ness, and  then  when  duty  bids  him  depart,  he  is  assisted  to  enter 
other  fields."  In  this  utterance,  the  society  claimed  that  it  stood  on 
the  same  ground  as  the  New  School  Presbyterian  and  Congregational 
churches  as  affirmed  by  the  General  Assemblies  of  1818,  1846  and 
1850,  and  by  the  General  Convention  of  Congregational  Ministers  at 
Albany  in  1852.  The  latter  declared  it  "  to  be  the  duty  of  the  mis- 
sionary societies  to  grant  aid  to  churches  in  slaveholding  states,  in 
support  of  such  ministers  only  as  shall  so  preach  the  Gospel  and 
inculcate  the  principles  and  application  of  Gospel  discipline  that, 
with  the  blessing  of  God,  it  shall  have  its  effect  in  awakening  and 
enlightening  the  moral  sense  in  regard  to  slavery  and  in  bringing  to 
pass  the  speedy  abolition  of  that  evil."  l 

In  spite  of  this  statement,  the  society  had  soon  to  take  the  position 
of  the  churches  and  refuse  financial  aid  to  all  churches  not  excluding 
slaveowners  from  membership.  An  example  of  the  divisive  power  of 
this  great  question  is  shown  in  the  history  of  the  Third  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Chicago.  Up  to  1851,  all  churches  of  eastern  origin  in 
Chicago  were  Presbyterian.  The  Third  Presbyterian  Church  was 
noted  for  its  strong  anti-slavery  sentiment,  including  as  it  did  in  its 
membership  Hon.  W,  W.  Farwell,  prominent  in  anti-slavery  political 
measures  of  the  time,  and  Philo  Carpenter,  whose  house  and  store 
were  famous  terminals  of  the  Underground  Railroad.  The  General 
Assembly  of  1850  meeting  at  Detroit,  having  failed  to  take  positive 
ground  against  slavery,  a  majority  of  the  Chicago  church  voted  to 
stand  aloof  from  all  meetings  of  Synod  and  Presbytery  till  this  policy 
should  be  changed.  Disciplined  for  this  irregularity,  a  majority  of 
the  church  established  themselves  in  the  lecture  room  of  the  church, 
the  personal  property  of  Mr.  Carpenter,  and  there  formed  the  First 
Congregational  Church  of  Chicago,  preached  to  in  its  early  days  by 
Jonathan  Blanchard,  later  identified  with  Wheaton  College,  by  J.  M. 
Sturtevant  and  Owen  Lovejoy,  and  in  time  proud  of  its  record  as 
"  turned  out,  burned  out,"  jeered  at  as  a  "nigger  church."  This  church 
strongly  criticised  the  conservatism  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society. 
For  years  it  held  a  Fourth  of  July  prayer-meeting  for  the  deliverance 
of  the  slave;  it  observed  a  month  of  prayer  before  the  inauguration 
of  President  Lincoln. 

There  was  much  in  the  internal  development  of  Illinois  to  lead  to 
a  constantly  increasing  anti-slavery  feeling.  Even  her  early  settlers, 
mainly  from  the  south,  did  not  wish  slavery  in  Illinois,  both  for 
economic,  and,  in  many  cases,  for  moral  reasons.  This  was  proved 
by  the  majority,  small  indeed,  which  prevented  the  constitutional 
amendment  permitting  slavery  in  1824.  Then  came  the  large  influx 
of  Easterners,  most  of  them  opposed  to  slavery,  and  accustomed  to 
give  ear  to  the  moral  instructions  of  their  religious  leaders.  Their 
moral  sentiments  were  shocked  by  the  turbulent  acts  and  temper  of 
the  border  and  by  the  sight  of  thf  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  Moral  sentiment  aroused  led  to  such  a  certainty  of  conviction 

1  Home  Missionary.  March,  1853. 


63 

that  Illinois  could  even  criticise  New  England  for  her  moderateness 
of  statement;  churches  criticised  the  society  that  gave  them  exist- 
ence; and  church  members  criticised  the  reserve  of  the  church  itself; 
and  the  religious  leaders  saw  in  all  the  agitation  and  in  the  threat- 
ening danger  still  greater  need  for  the  spread  of  Christian  truth. 
As  the  contest  deepened  and  patriotism  was  invoked  to  bring  the 
country  out  of  her  trouble,  it  seems  only  a  natural  result  that  one  in 
four  of  the  entire  male  membership  of  the  Puritan  church  in  Illinois 
sprang  to  the  defense  of  the  Union  against  the  coalition  of  slavehold- 
ing  states. 


(54 


CHAPTER   XIII. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   RIVALRIES. 


During  this  era  of  anti-slavery  agitation,  New  England  Puritanism 
was  disturbed  by  the  rapid  development  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  the  Northwest.  The  French  Catholic  priests  of  the  early 
days  had  offered  little  opposition  to  the  Protestants  They  did  not 
object  to  the  distribution  of  tracts  and  Bibles  among  their  own 
people,  and  they  never  attempted  to  take  the  matter  of  education 
from  the  Protestants,  who  were  so  eager  and  so  sure  of  their  own 
method.  What  now  particularly  alarmed  the  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety and  its  constituency,  was  what  appeared  to  be  a  definite  plan  on 
the  part  of  European  Catholics  to  capture  a  large  part  of  the  North- 
west for  their  faith. 

A  warning  was  given  in  May,  1842,  through  the  organ  of  the 
society :  "  The  territory  of  this  nation  is  an  unlimited  and  inviting 
field,  to  which  the  human  swarms  are  gathering  from  other  lands. 
The  crumbling  dynasties  of  the  old  world  are  sending  hither  materials 
to  reconstruct  the  fabrics  which  are  there  tottering  to  ruin.  Already 
the  foundations  are  laid  for  social  institutions  such  as  our  own  fathers 
knew  not.  Foreign  Papists  are  planting  our  fairest  territories  thick 
with  their  schools.  Colony  after  colony  of  men  of  a  strange  tongue 
and  stranger  associations,  are  possessing  themselves  of  our  soil  and 
gathering  around  our  ballot  boxes."  "In  Missouri,  Illinois  and 
Arkansas  there  are  seventy-four  priests  with  literary  institutions  of 
every  grade  in  which,  at  least,  a  thousand  youths  are  now  training — 
here  then  the  very  heart  of  the  West  is  infected  and  every  pulsation 
throws  abroad  a  strain  of  influence  baneful  to  the  civil  freedom  and 
religious  well-being  of  unnumbered  thousands."  l 

More  hopeful  was  the  following  expression:  "  The  most  formida- 
ble foe  of  the  universal  spread  of  the  Gospel  is,  doubtless,  to  be  found 
in  the  Roman  apostacy — where  else  could  the  contest  be  bloodless, 
where  so  successful  as  here,  where  no  racks  or  tortures  forestall  the 
force  of  argument — here  where  the  benighted  children  of  error  will 
surrounded  and  pervaded  by  the  silent  but  resistless  influence  of  our 
schools  and  presses;  here,  where  every  one  of  them  may  stand  erect 
and  feel  that  he  is  a  man  and  may  assert  his  right  to  doubt  as  well  as 
to  believe;  to  discuss  and  judge  as  well  as  to  listen  and  obey?  In- 
stead, therefore,  of  deprecating  the  coming  of  so  many  foreigners  as  a 
curse,  we  should  regard  it  as  the  fulfillment  of  our  national  destiny." 

1  Annual  Report  of  Home  Missionary  Society,  June,  1842. 


65 

In  July  of  this  year,  1842,  it  was  reported  that  an  agent  from  Illi- 
nois had  been  in  England  and  on  the  continent  for  the  purpose  of 
sending  emigrants  to  the  western  states.  Money  to  buy  lands  in 
Illinois  and  elsewhere  had  been  raised.  Land  offices  had  been  opened 
in  England  and  Germany  for  the  sale  of  western  lands.  The  emigra- 
tion from  Ireland,  England  and  Germany  was  large.1 

In  November  of  this  year,  the  "  Grand  Scheme  "  itself  is  fully  ad- 
vertised and  exposed  with  increased  effort  to  rouse  public  sentiment 
against  what  was  held  to  be  an  impending  danger:  "That  there  is  a 
formal  conspiracy  of  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe  to  bring  our  republic 
under  papal  control,  as  has  been  sometimes  asserted,  may  or  may  not 
be  true.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  of  the  potentates  and 
grandees  of  Catholic  Europe  greatly  desire  such  a  result.  The  no- 
bility and  political  economists  who  regard  with  amazement  and  terror 
the  accumulation  of  masses  of  population  in  the  overcrowded  states 
of  the  old  world,  withont  instruction,  without  employment,  and  with- 
out bread,  have  a  powerful  reason  for  pushing  these  masses  off  upon 
our  comparative  vacant  territory." 

During  1842  a  pamphlet  was  issued  in  London  and  Dublin,  enti- 
tled "Proposed  New  Plan  of  a  General  Emigration  Society;  by  a 
Catholic  Gentleman."  The  object  was  to  be  the  sending  of  the  Irish 
poor  to  America.  From  this  well  written  pamphlet  the  editors  of  the 
missionary  magazine  made  large  extracts.  The  reasons  for  such 
emigration  are  stated,  as  follows:  "  1.  To  dispose  of  excess  of  popu- 
lation. 2.  To  create  demand  for  British  manufactures.  3.  To  make 
the  Catholic  religion  predominant  in  the  United  States."  The 
pamphlet  contained  a  map  copied  by  the  missionary  magazine  to 
show  the  region  it  was  thought  best  to  settle  in.  The  territory  in- 
cluded Upper  Canada,  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois 
and  part  of  Iowa.  The  desirableness  of  this  country  was  proven  by 
descriptive  extracts  from  De  Tocqueville,  Captain  Marryatt,  Miss 
Martiiieau  and  Judge  Haliburton.  The  officials  of  the  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society  drew  three  conclusions  from  this  document:  "  1.  We 
may  expect  colonization  stimulated  and  systematized  more  and  more. 
2.  The  great  field  of  conflict  for  religious  and  political  supremacy 
will  be  the  West.  3.  Noiv  is  the  the  time  to  save  the  West." 

In  the  following  year,  1843,  the  foundation  of  certain  benevolent 
societies  in  Europe  to  advance  Catholicism  in  America  gave  further 
occasion  for  alarm.  Frederick  Rese,  Vicar  General  of  the  Diocese  of 
Cincinnati,  interested  himself  particularly  in  the  spread  of  Catholic 
missions  in  America,  promoting  the  gathering  of  funds  for  this  pur- 
pose in  a  memorial  to  Leopoldina.  Empress  of  Brazil.  The  Pope 
granted  special  indulgences  to  those  aiding  this  fund,  and  Metter- 
nich  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of  Cincinnati  commending  the  movement. 
It  soon  gathered  $61,000.  The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Faith  at  Lyons,  during  1840,  appropriated  $160,000  to  missions  in 
America.2 

The  intense  feeling  on  the  subject  occasioned  even  such  extrava- 
gant language  as  that  used  in  an  address  in  Painesville,  Ohio,  in 

1  Home  Missionary,  July,  1842. 

2  Home  Missionary,  February,  1843. 

— 5H 


66 

1844:  "  The  Apocalyptic  Beast  is  watching  with  intense  anxiety,  and 
straining  his  eyeballs  for  a  favorable  moment  to  spring  in  upon  us 
with  one  immense  bound  and  make  us  his  prey.  Rome  has  more 
men,  more  money,  more  cunning  and  more  perseverance  than  we 
have.  Rome  never  stops  short  of  universal  victory  or  universal 
defeat."  1 

From  this  time  on  Romanism  is  classed  with  intemperance  and 
slavery  as  an  evil  threatening  the  country.  The  citation  of  a  few 
titles  of  articles  appearing  in  the  Home  Missionary,  show  the  nature 
of  the  Protestant  opposition:  "Jesuits  in  the  United  States,"  Janu- 
ary 1846;  "Catholic  Clergy  in  the  United  States,"  February,  1846; 
"Indulgences,"  June,  1848;  "Aid  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
America,"  August,  1848;  '"Jesuit  Seminaries  at  the  West,"  October, 
1851 ;  "  Does  the  Romish  Church  Discourage  the  Reading  of  the 
Bible?"  July,  1853. 

The  utterances  on  the  subject,  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  the  day  will  show  how  seriously  the  matter  was  regarded. 
Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  referred  to  the  "gigantic  efforts  of  the  Papal 
church  to  achieve  for  itself  the  dominion  of  this  hallowed  soil."2 
Professor  Park,  of  Andover,  wrote:  "Send  our  armies  to  the  great 
valley  where  the  Pope  will  reign  unless  Puritanism  be  triumphant. 
Remembering  the  fires  of  Smithfield  and  the  ashes  of  our  fathers  who 
sleep  in  Bunhill  fields,  let  us  pray  together  for  this  'vine'."3  Speak- 
ing of  the  moral  conflicts  before  the  country,  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins 
wrote:  "Rome  and  despotism  are  pouring  in  the  materials  of  which 
mobs  are  made.  Infidelity  in  its  various  forms  is  more  extensive 
than  many  suppose.  When  we  remember  the  sectional  jealousies 
and  distracting  relations  of  slavery,  and  see  how  easily  the  standard 
of  a  civil  and  servile  war  might  be  unfurled,  we  cannot  see  the  burden 
on  the  church  likely  to  be  diminished  in  our  day."4 

Catholicism  was  not  the  only  "error"  by  which  the  West  was 
assailed.  The  missionary  fathers,  after  the  comparative  uniformity 
in  religious  beliefs  to  which  they  were  accustomed  in  New  England 
were  astonished  and  shocked  at  the  sectarian  divisions,  the  multi- 
plicity of  sects,  with  which  they  came  in  contact  in  the  West.  Rev. 
Julian  M.  Sturtevant  writes  as  follows  of  the  conditions  in  New 
England  when  he  was  a  boy:5  "We  had  Baptist,  Episcopal  and 
Methodist  churches,  but  they  were  far  too  few  in  number  to  seriously 
impair  the  unity  of  the  New  England  church  life.  The  Baptists 
were  numerous  only  in  Rhode  Island.  Both  they  and  the  Methodist 
societies  that  were  beginning  to  be  organized  here  and  there,  usually 
sought  locations  remote  from  Congregational  places  of  worship,  and 
thus  rarely  came  in  contact  with  them.  The  world  was  then  broad 
enough  for  all.  There  was  no  crowding.  The  consequence  was  that 
the  church  in  any  particular  town  was  not  regarded  as  the  representa- 
tive of  some  distinct  denomination,  but  simply  as  a  branch  of  the 
church  of  Christ,  '  the  Church  Universal.'  We  thought  of  ours  as 

1  Home  Missionary,  June,  1844. 

2  Home  Missionary,  May,  1852. 

3  Ibid.,  September,  1845. 

4  Ibid.,  November,  1845. 

5  Julian  M.  Sturtei<ant,  An  Autobiography,  23. 


67 

the  'Warren  Christian  Church.'  If,  in  my  childhood,  I  had  heard 
our  place  of  worship  mentioned  as  Congregational,  I  would  have 
needed  to  ask  an  explanation  of  the  unusual  term.  Such  was  the 
vantage  ground  of  the  Connecticut  churches  at  the  time  of  which  I 
am  speaking,  and  the  same  thing  might  be  said  of  the  larger  portion 
of  Massachusetts  and  also  of  a  considerable  part  of  Vermont  and 
New  Hampshire.  I  call  it  vantage  ground,  not,  however,  to  Congre- 
gationalists  as  a  religious  denomination,  biit  to  Christianity." 

How  different  the  condition  in  Illinois.  One  settlement  of  eighty 
families  had  fourteen  sects.  One  town  of  800  inhabitants  had  eight 
denominations.  The  missionaries  soon  began  to  class  together  the 
forms  that  seemed  to  them  most  disastrous.  This  despairing  picture 
of  southeastern  Illinois  in  1835  brings  them  all  together:  "One  or 
two  churches  are  dead,  two  or  three  more  are  soon  to  expire.  At 
Vincennes  a  Catholic  college  and  nunnery  are  soon  to  be  built. 
Romanism,  Arianism,  Universalism,  Campbellism,  Deism  and  almost, 
every  delusion  prevail."1  Another  writer  sums  up  the  errors  in  this 
form:  "The  West  is  the  arena  where  the  contest  is  to  be  carried  on 
between  Infidelity,  Romanism,  Mormonism  and  Satanism  on  one 
side  and  Christianity  on  the  other." 

To  their  sorrow  they  had  to  confess  that  many  of  the  "false  teach- 
ers," the  Roman  Catholic  priests,  the  Mormons,  preachers  of 
Universalism,  the  Millerites,  lecturers  on  Atheism,  mesmerism  and 
phrenology,  came  from  the  east.  Another  cause  for  chagrin  was  that 
Northern  Illinois  was  most  seriously  affected;  the  Fox  river  region 
was  the  "stronghold  of  Universalism,"  Hancock  county  was  almost 
entirely  given  over  to  the  Mormons,  while  the  nearby  valley  of  the 
Des  Moines  was  a  center  of  infidelity  under  the  leadership  of  Abner 
Kneeland.  "Paine's  'Age  of  Reason'  is  read  with  avidity  in  many 
families  and  its  doctrines  advocated  by  men  of  influence.  Not  a  few 
mothers  drink  in  this  poison.  Many  immigrants  from  Europe  are 
disciples  of  Hume  and  Voltaire.  Clubs  and  associations  are  found  in 
almost  all  of  our  towns  on  the  rivers."2  One  family  went  so  far  as  to 
keep  their  family  record  in  Tom  Paine  instead  of  the  Bible. 

One  sect,  which  at  the  present  time  has  good  standing,  in  that  day 
particularly  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  Easterner.  "Campbellism" 
was  described  as  the  "bane  of  the  West,"  the  "common  enemy  of  all 
evangelical  Christianity."  These  people  were  also  known  as  "Dis- 
ciples," and  were  the  followers  of  Alexander  Campbell  of  Bethany, 
Virginia.  Rev.  J.  M.  Sturtevant  was  much  criticised  for  fellowship 
with  a  church  of  this  sect  near  Jacksonville,  and  it  was  scarcely 
considered  an  evangelical  body.  While  not  slow  to  oppose  the  doc- 
trines of  some  of  their  leaders,  Sturtevant  kept  up  his  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  Disciples  and  in  his  old  age  wrote:  "It  is  my  belief 
that  no  portion  of  the  religious  community  around  us  has  grown  in 
grace  more  rapidly  than  that  denomination."3 


1  Home  Missionary,  March,  1835. 

2  Home  Missionary,  December,  1841 . 

3  Julian  M.  Sturtevant,  An  Autobiography,  248. 


68 

Most  blighting  in  its  influence  for  the  short  time  it  remained  in 
Illinois  was  the  Mormon  propaganda.  Driven  from  Missouri  the 
Mormons  had  established  themselves  at  Nauvoo,  in  Hancock  county, 
where  they  arrived  in  1839.  The  effect  on  the  community  was 
immediate.  Nearly  all  the  old  citizens  became  anxious  to  sell  their 
property  and  many  prepared  to  move  away,  so  great  was  the  dis- 
inclination to  live  near  the  Mormons.  "Their  recruits  come  from 
churches  where  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  the  Bible  are  kept  in  the 
the  background."  A  Mormon  preacher  was  reported  to  have  said 
that  he  would  as  soon  undertake  to  make  "sugar  out  of  dry  hickory 
as  to  make  a  Mormon  out  of  a  Congregationalist."1 

In  a  year  or  two  it  was  apparent  that  the  Mormons  intended  to  rule 
the  region  politically  as  well  as  religiously.  Since  somewhat  recently 
popular  articles  by  Mormon  writers  have  appeared  in  some  of  the 
magazines  in  which  persecutions  suffered  by  the  Mormons  in  Illinois 
and  attending  their  departure  from  Missouri  are  dwelt  upon,  contem- 
porary witness  to  the  experiences  and  feelings  of  the  community  may 
be  of  interest.  In  August,  1842,  a  missionary  in  Hancock  county 
wrote:  ;'  The  Mormon  farce  is  manifestly  drawing  to  a  close.  They 
are  rallying  from  every  point  to  this  county  for  the  purpose  of  carry- 
ing the  elections  and  thus  getting  all  the  public  business  into  their 
own  hands,  and  there  is  a  state  of  growing  excitement  among  the  rest 
of  the  community.  I  am  afraid  the  next  August  election  will  not  pass 
by  without  bloodshed.  I  presume  Nauvoo  is  as  perfect  a  sink  of  de- 
bauchery and  every  species  of  abomination  as  ever  were  Sodom  or 
Nineveh."2  The  next  year  the  report  is  that  there  are  15,000  Mormons 
in  the  county;  that  they  hold  all  the  offices.  Old  citizens  are  much 
disturbed.  It  seems  like  the  eve  of  an  outbreak,  while  the  Mormons 
themselves  are  "  worse  than  all  that  has  been  said  about  them."3  But 
the  end  was  not  yet.  It  1845  the  "old  citizens  are  irritated  almost  to 
desperation  by  the  daily  insults  and  depredations  upon  their  property, 
by  a  people  whom  a  few  years  since  they  received  into  their  bosom 
and  both  clothed  and  fed  as  poor,  deluded,  persecuted  objects  of  char- 
ity. But  they  were  themselves  scarcely  less  deluded.  They  now 
suffer,  as  a  consequence  of  their  benefaction,  the  loss  of  business,  of 
personal  safety  and  general  prosperity  to  the  country.  The  absorbing 
question  with  this  whole  people  now  is,  how  shall  we  rid  ourselves  of 
this  curse?  We  were  afraid  the  people  would  drive  it  from  their 
borders  by  violence,  but  God  seems  to  have  purposed  that  it  Shall 
ripen  among  us  and  with  wonderful  suddenness  perish  utterly  in  its 
own  corruption."4 

Rev.  -1.  M.  Grout,  the  missionary  at  Warsaw,  wrote  in  February, 
1846,  that  life  and  property  were  not  safe.  In  September  of  the  same 
year  he  wrote  that  ten  surrounding  counties  had  pledged  themselves 
to  see  that  the  Mormons  move  from  Illinois  and  already  most  of  them 
had  fled  to  Missouri.  He  had  attended  three  funerals  of  prominent 
citizens  killed  by  Mormons  in  the  last  three  months.  At  one  time 

1.  Home  Missionary,  November,  1840. 

2.  Ibid.,  August,  1842. 

3.  Ibid.,  October,  1843. 

4.  Home  Missionary,  October,  1845. 


69 

parties  of  Mormons  went  about  terrorizing  the  county.  The  next 
month  Mr.  Grout  reported  nearly  all  the  Mormon  property  as  sold  and 
at  higher  rates  than  their  opponents  could  have  got  for  theirs  had 
the  Mormons  remained.  "A  miserable  remnant,  perhaps  2,000,  still 
remained  in  Nauvoo,  the  objects  of  suspicion,  hatred  and  fear.  Their 
temple  is  yet  unsold.  The  main  body  is  encamped  almost  within 
speaking  distance.  The  old  citizens  are  impatient  of  such  delay  and 
fearful  of  their  return."  Four  months  later  he  writes:  "  Controversy 
seems  to  have  closed.  Order  and  quiet  has  reigned  since  a  few  days 
after  the  battle  which  induced  Mormons  and  semi-Mormons  to  leave 
Nauvoo.  A  few  acts  of  theft  have  been  committed,  but  the  offenders 
have  been  dealt  with  promptly  according  to  law."  His  words  of  a 
year  later  show  how  deep  the  demoralization  of  the  region  had  been. 
"Great  prudence,  discernment,  patience  and  forbearance  were  neces- 
sary to  persuade  a  population  which  had  been  inflicted  with  the 
vicinity  of  Mornionism  to  commence  anew  to  build  up  society  and  the 
utmost  sagacity  to  keep  them  at  work."1  The  "temple,"  which  seems 
to  have  been  a  problem  to  both  parties,  was  burned  in  1848;  the  "work 
of  some  nefarious  incendiary,"  an  act  which  was  not  approved  by  the 
better  portion  of  the  population.  It  was  not  till  1853  that  the  mis- 
sionaries reported  Hancock  county  as  really  recovering  from  the  Mor- 
mon occupation. 

Jo  Daviess  county  suffered  from  a  smaller  Mormon  invasion  under 
rather  peculiar  circumstances.  Many  came  directly  from  Nauvoo,  but 
more  "from  the  colony  of  one  Strang,  who.  in  view  of  the.  corruption 
of  the  church  at  Nauvoo,  attempted  to  establish  a  reformed  Mormon 
church  in  Wisconsin.  Many  of  his  followers  left  him,  and  his  at- 
tempt to  impose  phosphorescent  light  for  cloven  tongues  defeated  his 
whole  enterprise.  This  colony  is  the  result  of  the  breaking  up  of 
these  two  dens  since  their  faith  and  confidence  in  their  leaders  is  not 
strong  enough  to  take  them  to  California."2 

One  cannot  emphasize  too  strongly  the  utter  lack  of  any  ground  of 
agreement  between  such  colonies  and  the  New  England  settlers.  The 
Mormons  appeared  too  late  to  gain  a  real  foothold  in  Illinois  and  had 
to  do  pioneer  work  in  the  unoccupied  field  of  Utah  to  make  a  perma- 
nent hold  for  themselves. 

1.  Home  Missionary,  March,  1848. 

2.  Ibid.,  September,  1848. 


70 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


EDUCATIONAL    INFLUENCE. 


Turning  to  a  successful  side  of  the  missionary's  work,  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  his  influence  in  educational  matters  was  creative,  defin- 
ite, permanent.  Illinois  owes  much  in  her  educational  development 
to  him.  He  brought  with  him  the  knowledge  of  the  three-fold  edu- 
cational organization  of  New  England,  the  college,  the  academy  and 
the  common  school;  and  he  added  to  this,  wrought  out  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  surroundings,  the  idea  of  industrial  education  by 
the  State. 

Applying  this  program  to  Illinois,  we  find,  in  the  local  conditions, 
certain  helps  and  certain  hindrances  to  the  cause  of  education.  To 
begin  with  there  was  generous  financial  encouragement  provided  by 
the  general  government  in  the  terms  of  the  ordinance  of  1787  for  the 
disposing  of  lands  in  the  Western  Territory,  by  which  section  sixteen 
in  each  township  was  devoted  to  school  purposes.  The  enabling  act 
of  1818  also  devoted  one  entire  township  for  the  use  of  a  "seminary 
of  learning"  and  of  the  five  per  cent  of  the  net  proceeds  of  the  sale  of 
government  lands  within  her  limits  granted  to  the  use  of  the  State, 
it  was  provided  that  three-fifths  should  be  used  for  educational  pur- 
poses, one-sixth  of  this  sum  to  be  used  for  a  college  or  university. 
In  1882  this,  together  with  a  surplus  revenue  fund  given  by  Congress 
in  1837  and  certain  county  funds,  amounted  to  a  principal  of  $9,691,- 
932.89  with  an  income  of  $636,204.64. 

In  enumerating  the  disadvantages  with  which  education  had  to 
contend  it  is  obvious  at  once  that  funds  would  not  flow  into  the  State 
treasury  very  early  from  these  provisions  since  the  sale  of  lands 
would  naturally  be  slow  till  settlers  became  abundant.  In  fact  the 
first  sale  was  not  made  till  1831  in  Greene  county.  Again  the  early 
settlers  were  not  in  so  prosperous  a  condition  at  first  as  to  lead  them 
to  impose  taxes  upon  themselves  nor  were  they  as  a  class  at  all  dis- 
posed to  promote  free  schools.1 

To  this  should  be  added  the  fact  that  the  legislative  bodies  of  the 
State  were  controlled  by  representatives  of  the  southern  settlers  dur- 
ing all  the  years  we  were  considering.  Any  advance  in  educational 
matters  was  wrested  from  these  men  only  by  long  siege  and  after 
repeated  rebuffs.  These  legislators  diverted  the  school  funds  to  the 

1  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  in  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  1881-82  p.  CXXII1, 
CXXVII;  in  Rep-tt,  1887-88,  LX  VII;  Samuel  Wilhard,  History  of  Early  Education  in  Illinois, 
in  Report,  1883-84,  LXVII. 


71 

payment  of  other  State  expenses  so  persistently  in  the  early  years 
that  Congress  withheld  the  fund  for  several  years  previous  to  1831. 
By  act  of  1835  the  interest  was  distributed  to  the  counties  and  no 
longer  loaned  to  the  State.  The  State  by  public  act  pays  interest  on 
all  the  funds  which  have  accrued  to  it  from  the  sources  named 
although  the  funds  themselves  were  long  ago  diverted  to  State  uses.1 

The  establishment  of  free  schools,  the  appointment  of  a  State 
superintendent  of  public  instruction,  an  institution  for  the  education 
of  teachers,  and  an  "industrial  university,"  where  the  main  objects 
for  which  special  and  long  continued  effort  were  necessary. 

"The  paramount  influence  of  the  New  Englanders  in  accomplishing 
this  program  is  fully  acknowledged  by  those  most  conversant  with 
the  educational  history  of  the  State.  The  origin  of  the  American 
common  school  in  Illinois  was  due  to  the  tide  of  immigration  from 
New  England."  "But  as  the  immigration  from  the  south  and  espec- 
ially from  the  east  poured  in  the  modes  of  life  of  the  people  changed; 
then  the  earth  floor  and  the  slab  seats  and  the  puncheon  writing  desk 
gave  way  to  oaken  boards  from  the  saw  mill.  The  ceilings  and  the 
walls  ere  long  were  clothed  with  lath  and  plaster;  the  chimney  of 
brick  and  the  stove  superseded  the  hugh  chimney  of  sticks;  glass 
windows  admitted  light;  the  framed  and  boarded  house  took  the  place 
of  the  log  structure,  and  change  followed  change  till  the  present 
tasteful,  well-furnished  school  house  caused  the  older  expedients  of 
the  early  days  to  be  forgotten.  With  these  the  pupil  and  teacher  and 
text  books  changed  in  equal  ratio."  This  authority  it  should  be  said 
is  particularly  anxious  to  give  proper  credit  to  ail  the  sources  of  help 
in  the  educational  struggle.2 

The  earliest  of  New  England  educational  workers  to  be  noted  was 
Rev.  J.  M.  Peck,  also  remembered  for  his  services  in  keeping  Illinois 
an  anti-slavery  state,  a  missionary  of  the  Massachusetts  Baptist 
Society  and  later  an  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society.  He  is 
described  as  "perhaps  the  most  indefatigable  worker  in  behalf  of  edu- 
cation the  State  has  ever  known."  He  furthered  the  educational 
interests  of  his  own  denomination  in  Rock  Spring  Seminary  and 
Shurtleff  College.  "He  brought  teachers  from  the  east  and  helped 
them  to  employment;  in  every  way  and  at  every-time  he  used  tongue, 
pen,  time,  means  and  influence  for  the  cause  of  education."3  In  1833 
at  Vandalia  in  the  first  educational  convention  ever  held  in  the  State 
he  organized  the  first  educational  society,  "prominent  among  those 
special  agencies,  educational  associations,  State  legislatures,  ladies 
educational;  societies,  teachers  institutes  and  popular  methods"  which 
participated  in  the  struggle  for  popular  education  up  to  1855.4 

This  society  was  called  the  Illinois  Institute  of  education.  Mr. 
Peck  was  made  a  corresponding  secretary.  It  devoted  itself  to  the 
gathering*  of  information' as  to  the  condition  of  the  primary  schools  of 
the^  State,  to  corresponding  with  centers  of  school  information  outside 

1  Piilsbnry,  in  Report  ^  188J.-82,  XXXVI. 

2  Mayo,  Education  in  Hie  North-west,  in  U.S.  Commissioner  of  Edncation  Report,  1894-5,  II, 
1543;  WUlard.  Early  Education  in  Illinois,  cxviii. 

3  W.  L.;Pillsbury,  it&Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  1885-86,  pp.  cv 
cxz;  Wizard,  as  above,  p.  cxviii. 

4  Mayo,  as  above,  p.  1541. 


72 

of  the  State  and  to  an  effort  to  inform  and  arouse  the  public  on  the 
subject.  Mr.  Peck's  denominational  paper,  the  Pioneer  and  Western 
Baptist,  became  also  an  educational  organ,  publishing  information, 
suggesting  a  second  educational  convention  at  Vandalia  in  December 
of  1834  and  printing  its  proceeding,  an  "Address  to  the  People  of 
Illinois"  and  the  "Memorial"  to  the  Legislature. 

A  free  school  law  had  been  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  Illi- 
nois, January  15,  1825,  embracing  all  the  essential  points  of  the  free 
school  idea.  The  law  met  so  much  opposition  that  it  never  became 
generally  operative,  and  was  soon  made  ineffective  by  an  amendment 
removing  the  general  tax.  The  following  statement  is  the  conjecture 
of  its  origin.  "If  we  could  get  at  the  unwritten  history  of  the  passage 
of  the  law  we  should,  I  imagine,  find  its  passage  was  secured  by 
strong  personal  influences,  more  potent  in  Vandalia  with  the  small 
number  who  could  be  talked  to  face  to  face,  \ha,n  with  the  sparse  and 
widely  scattered  people  of  the  State  at  large  in  those  days  of  few 
newspapers  with  short  subscription  lists,  when  travel  was  chiefly  on 
horseback."1-  As  a  result  of  the  educational  agitation  in  1834.  above 
noted,  another  broad  and  liberal  educational  bill  was  introduced  into 
the  Assembly  only  to  fail  in  its  most  essential  feature  of  general 
taxation.2- 

It  was  at  this  session,  1834-5,  that  Illinois  college  gained  its  charter. 
Its  doors  had  been  open  since  1830,  but  it  had  been  impossible  to 
gain  a  satisfactory  charter  until  this  session.  By  making  common 
cause  with  Shurtleff  and  McKendree  colleges,  she  gained  her  charter, 
not  without  restriction  however.  All  three  were  forbidden  to  hold 
more  than  640  acres  of  land  or  to  establish  theological  departments, 
restrictions  removed  in  a  few  years.  Such  men  as  Hon.  Samuel  D. 
Lockwood  and  Judge  William  Brown,  .men  "devoted,  heart,  soul  and 
purse  to  the  cause  of  education"3-  worked  for  the  bill.  Judge  Lock- 
wood  had  shown  his  affection  for  Illinois  College  before  this  time 
when  Mr.  Ellis  proposed  to  make  the  tour  through  Greene,  Morgan 
and  Sangamon,  the  "upper  counties,"  in  the  interests  of  the  Home 
Missionary  Society  and  of  the  proposed  college  in  1828.  Judge  Lock- 
wood  proposed  that  his  clerk,  Thomas  Lippincott,  who  afterwards  be- 
came a  missionary  of  the  society,  should  accompany  him  and  he 
furnished  a  horse  and  the  funds  necessary  for  the  expedition.  Later, 
when  all  had  made  their  home  in  Jacksonville,  he  selected  the  college 
site  for  his  own  home,  but  gave  it  to  the  college  on  the  condition  that 
the  college  should  be  located  there.4- 

The  nature  of  the  opposition  can  be  galne*d  from  the  three  questions 
discussed  in  the  report  of  the  committee  on  petitions: 

1.  Are  institutions  of  this  character  really  needed  in  the  State? 

2.  Is  it  important  to  their  success  that  the  trustees  who  manage 
them  should  become  bodies  corporate? 

3.  Can  corporate  powers  be  granted  with  safety  to  the  public  in- 
terest ? 


1.  Pillsbury  in  Repott,  1885-6,  pp.  cviii.cxv. 

2.  W.  L.  Pillsbury, Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  1885-6,  p.  cxxv. 

3.  Ibid.,  p.  cxii. 

4.  Julian  M.  Sturterant ,  An  Autobiography,  176. 


73 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  argument  on  the  last  question : 
"These  men  have  some  peculiar  claims  upon  our  confidence  and  sup- 
port. They  commenced  their  operations  in  the  infancy  of  our  State, 
when  the  means  of  education  were  exceedingly  limited,  and  schools 
of  every  description  were  few  and  far  between.  They  do  not  simply 
prepare  to  educate  those  who  should  hereafter  come  upon  the  stage, 
but  the  present  generation  also.  The  cry  now  is  from  all  parts  of  the 
State,  educate  the  present  generation.  The  petitioners  are  ready  to 
vociferate  the  same  loud  and  long.  This  is  the  very  thing  that  they 
propose  to  aid  in  accomplishing.  They  come  to  us  and  point  to  the 
present  state  of  education  in  Illinois  and  simply  ask  us  to  afford  them 
such  facilities  as  will  enable  them  to  prosecute  this  noble  work  with- 
out embarrassment.  Shall  we  then  withhold  from  them  that  coun- 
tenance and  support  which  they  ask?  It  would  seem  that  none  would 
be  more  deserving  of  encouragement  than  the  pioneer  in  the  cause  of 
education.  In  the  opinion  of  your  committee  the  petitioners  are 
richly  entitled  to  confidence  of  their  fellow  citizens,  and  the  support 
of  ourselves  as  a  legislature."1- 

In  addition  to  the  members  of  the  "Yale  Band"  already  noticed 
whose  interest  was  assured  to  the  new  college  either  by  direct  service 
for  it  or  by  sympathy  and  indirect  service,  one  must  note  its  first 
president,  Edward  Beecher,  who  came  to  Illinois  in  1833,  Truman 
M.  Post,  Samuel  Adams,  and  Jonathan  B.  Turner.  From  the  begin- 
ning the  college  grew  in  numbers  and  influence.  Drawing  its 
teachers  and  to  a  large  extent  its  funds  from  New  England,  there 
was  appropriateness  in  calling  Jacksonville,  its.  home,  "the  New 
Haven  of  the  West."2  The  Home  Missionary  churches  contributed 
to  its  support.  Land  as  well  as  money  was  given  to  it.  Its  pro- 
fessors did  not  confine  their  labors  to  the  class-room.  They  went 
abroad  lecturing  on  temperance,  and  they  promoted  anti-slavery  sen- 
timent; but  chiefly  they  tried  to  rouse  interest  in  popular  educa- 
tion. Mayo  says:  "One  of  the  most  potent  and  influential  of 
all  the  special  agencies  in  promoting  education  was  the  new  college 
of  Illinois.  It  threw  its  entire  influence  on  the  side  of  the  common 
school."3 

In  1834  Professor  J.  B.  Turner  spent  his  summer  vacation  in 
traveling  at  his  own  expense  to  the  counties  southwest  of  Morgan 
county,  delivering  addresses  in  behalf  of  public  schools  wherever  he 
could  gather  an  audience.  Through  these  years  the  papers  had  such 
notices  as  these:  "At  commencement  in  Jacksonville,  August  21, 
1832,  an  address  on  common  schools  by  Rev.  Theron  Baldwin." 
"November  13,  ]  834,  an  address  in  Springfield  by  Professor  J.  B. 
Turner,  subject,  'Common  Schools.' "  "Lecture  on  'Education'  by 
Rev.  Mr.  Baldwin  at  Mt.  Carmel,  Wabash  county,  August,  1836.  A 
subscription  for  an  academy  followed."  Commencement  time  was 
for  years  taken  as  an  opportunity  to  present  the  claims  of  this  inter- 
est. At  the  commencement  in  1836  the  Illinois  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion was  formed.  For  four  years  Rev.  John  F.  Brooks,  of  the  "Yale 

1  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  1887-88,  p.  cxxvii, 

2  Historical  Moigan  and  Clastic  Jacksonville. 

3  A.  D.  Mayo,  Education  in  the  North-west. 


74 

Band,"  was  its  secretary.  Addresses  at  this  first  meeting  were  made 
by  J.  F.  Brooks,  Edward  Beecher,  Theron  Baldwin,  and  J.  M.  Sturte- 
vant.  Of  the  eight  officers  chosen  six  were  Congregational  clergy- 
men. The  aim  of  the  association  was  to  elevate  the  qualifications  of 
teachers,  ''giving  permanency  to  their  employment,  and  by  mutual 
counsel  fixing  upon  the  best  text-books  and  methods  of  instruction." 
The  minutes  of  the  four  years  following,  with  meetings  all  held  in 
Jacksonville,  record  discussions  on  all  sorts  of  matters  pertaining  to 
the  conduct  of  schools,  with  committees  appointed  to  promote  the 
forming  of  county  associations,  to  investigate  the  text -books  used  in 
schools  and  similar  subjects.  In  1837,  Rev.  Lyman  Beecher,  of  the 
Lane  Seminary  in  Ohio,  was  present  at  the  Illinois  commencement 
and  addressed  the  association.1 

In  1837.  "The  Common  School  Advocate"  appeared,  published  at 
Jacksonville  and  edited  "by  a  few  literary  gentlemen  who,  from  their 
deep  interest  in  this  subject,  generously  volunteered  their  services  for 
one  year  without  remuneration."  Samuel  Willard  ascribes  the  edi- 
torship to  Rev.  Theron  Baldwin.2  Its  first  editorial  urges  the  im- 
portance of  national  and  state  secretaries  of  education,  the  first  men- 
tion of  a  subject  on  which  much  agitation  developed  later.  The  next 
number  gave  a  resume  of  Rev.  C.  E.  Stowe's  (a  brother-in-law  of 
Edward  Beecher)  report  on  the  Prussian  system  of  private  schools. 
This  report  by  calling  attention  to  the  normal  schools  of  Prussia  had 
particularly  interested  the  East,  where  the  question  of  the  state's 
establishing  normal  schools  was  becoming  prominent.  This  paper 
ceased  to  appear  at  the  end  of  a  year.  The  "Union  Agriculture  and 
Western  Prairie  Farmer,"  which  appeared  in  1841,  added  common 
school  interests  to  agricultural  under  the  editorship  of  John  S. 
Wright,  of  Massachusetts.  He  agitated  two  subjects  particularly, 
the  appointment  of  a  State  Superintendent  and  a  normal  school.  Up 
to  1855  this  paper  occupied  the  field  of  school  journalism  in  Illinois. 

Parallel  with  the  influence  of  Illinois  College  in  promoting  the  in- 
terests of  common  schools  was  that  of  the  "Ladies  Association  for 
Educating  Females,"  founded  in  Jacksonville  in  1833.  Its  aim  was 
"to  encourage  and  assist  young  ladies  to  qualify  themselves  for  teach- 
ing." Female  education  had  received  early  attention.  While  John 
M.  Ellis  was  founding  Illinois  College  with  his  wife's  help  he  also 
began  the  Jacksonville  Female  Academy  in  1828.  This  is  said  to  be 
the  earliest  institution  for  the  education  of  women  in  the  north-  west, 
outside  of  Ohio.  The  first  teacher,  Miss  Sarah  C.  Crocker,  was 
recommended  by  Mary  Lyon.  Miss  Crocker  was  the  first  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Ladies  Association  and  Mrs.  Theron  Baldwin  its  first 
secretary,  while  the  other  two  officers  were  Jacksonville  ladies.3  "The 
first  year  five  were  aided  and  received  tuition  and  books,  assisting  in 
some  families  as  part  compensation  for  board.  The  third  year  forty- 
five  were  assisted  in  different  parts  of  the  State.  The  association 
met  with  favor  wherever  known;  friends  and  means  were  raised  up, 

1  W.    L.  Pillsbury,    in   Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,   1885-86,    pp. 
cxxix-cxxxiii. 

2  Ibid,  1883-84,  p.  cxvii. 

3  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  in  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 1887 -88,  p.  p.  Ixxx, 
cxxxix,  cxiv.cxliii.    Eames,  Historic  Morgan  and  Classic  Jacksonville. 


75 

not  bounded  by  rivers  or  hemmed  in  by  mountains.  Auxiliaries 
were  found  in  New  York  City  and  Rochester,  New  York;  Madison, 
Wisconsin;  Davenport,  Iowa;  Chicago,  Gaiesburg,  Springfield,  Can- 
ton, Peoria  and  Waverly,  Illinois.  Sewing  circles  in  New  Haven; 
Connecticut;  Brooklyn,  New  York  and  various  other  places,  con- 
tributed to  the  treasury.  In  fifty  years  from  its  founding  the  asso- 
ciation had  aided  1,200  young  women  and  raised  $25,091. 35.1 

In  1840  the  Illinois  State  Education  Society  was  formed,  J.  M. 
Sturtevant's  name  appearing  on  the  committee  calling  the  convention 
which  led  to  the  forming  of  the  society,  and  Rev.  J.  G.  Bergen  of 
Springfield  was  its  presiding  officer.  This  society  memorialized  the 
legislature  urging  especially  the  creation  of  the  office  of  State  Super- 
intendent, but  general  taxation  and  a  State  Superintendent  were  gut 
off.2 

It  was  John  S.  Wright  who  in  his  "Prairie  Farmer''  proposed  the 
educational  convention  of  1844  at  Peoria,  printing  letters  from  Presi- 
dent Sturtevant  and  others  favoring  it.  It  was  held  in  October  with 
Rev.  Aratus  Kent  of  Galena  as  chairman.  This  convention  also 
menioralized  the  legislature  at  length. 

A  State  Superintendent  was  again  urged  and  Mr.  Wright  appeared 
before  the  legislation  committees  to  expfain  and  elucidate  the  project. 
According  to  the  terms  of  the  school  law  of  this  year  the  Secretary 
of  State  was  made  ex-officio  State  Superintendent  of  common  schools 
and  the  school  law  was  improved  in  various  other  Mays.3  Every  home 
missionary  was  pledged  to  promote  popular  education  and  the  follow- 
ing passage  from  a  report  to  the  society  in  1845  shows  adequate 
interest  in  the  practical  questions  at  issue  as  well  as  a  full  apprecia- 
tion of  the  missionary's  own  part  in  educational  work.4  '  All  history 
shows  that  there  are  no  agents  so  efficient  in  promoting  education  as 
evangelical  ministers;  hence,  home  missionaries  should  be  multiplied 
to  meet  the  demand.  And,  perhaps,  in  this  western  country  where  so 
little  interest  is  felt  in  the  cause  they  should  be  especially  instructed 
to  carry  this  point  by  using  every  means  within  their  reach,  such  as 
lecturing  on  education,  visiting  schools,  procuring  competent  teachers, 
and  using  their  influence  to  establish  primary  schools  and  academies. 
We  want  also  a  few  general  agents,  say  one  to  a  state,  like  your  state 
superintendents  in  the  east,  who  shall  travel  from  county  to  county, 
delivering  lectures  on  education  and  diffusing  information  on  the  sub- 
ject. Have  you  not  a  few  educated,  accomplished,  eloquent,  splendid 
laymen  who  have  enough  of  Howard's  spirit  to  devote  years,  or  a  life, 
to  an  untiring  effort  to  raise,  each  one  state,  to  such  a  pitch  of  edu- 
cational enthusiasm  that  they  will  be  honored  throughout  the  State 
in  all  coming  time  as  highly  as  St.  Patrick  in  Ireland." 

The  Peoria  convention  was  followed  by  conventions  at  Jacksonville 
in  connection  with  the  commencement  of  1845;  at  Winchester,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1845;  at  Jacksonville,  in  January,  1846;  and  at  Chicago,  in 

1  Mrs.  Emily.1!.  Bancroft.  Fiftieth  Anniversary  report  of  the  Ladies  Association  for  Educating 
Females. 

2  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  in   report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  lustructiou,  1887-88,  p.  cxiii, 
cxxxvii. 

3  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  in  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  1887-88,  p.  cxlvii. 

4  Home  Missionary,  September,  1845. 


76 

October,  1846.  At  the  Chicago  convention,  a  Teachers'  Institute  was 
organized  and  by  1850  such  institutions  had  become  common  through- 
out the  State.  In  that  year  Prof.  J.  B.  Turner  conducted  one  in  Pike 
county  with  fifty-five  teachers  present.  From  1850  to  1855  the  story 
of  the  struggle  for  free  common  schools  belongs  more  definitely  to  the 
educational  as  distinct  from  the  religious  development  of  the  State, 
although  in  1853  when  the  State  Teachers  Institute  of  Illinois  was 
founded  in  Bloomingtoii  there  were  not  teachers  enough  present  to 
fill  the  offices  and  they  had  to  fill  them  with  clergymen,  voting,  how- 
ever, "that  in  succeeding  times  it  shall  be  the  policy  of  the  Institute 
to  have  its  offices  filled  generally  with  practical  teachers.'11  In  18^5 
came  the  great  victory.  The  bill  drafted  by  the  State  Superintendent 
became  in  its  main  features  the  law.  It  contained  "provisions  for 
the  State  tax  for  schools,  for  unrestrained  local  taxation  and  for  a 
free  school  in  every  district  for  six  months  in  the  year."  Even  with 
this  final  victory  echoes  of  the  old  opposition  were  heard.  ''Superin- 
tendent Edwards,  and  others  who  went  over  the  State,  say  that  oppo- 
sition to  free  schools  was  very  bitter  in  many  counties,  particularly 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  State  and  they  concur  in  saying  that  but 
for  the  State  tax  and  the  mode  of  distributing  it  the  bill  could  not 
have  been  passed.  The  tax  was  collected  upon  property,  and  dis- 
tributed two-thirds  on  the  minor  population  and  one-third  upon  area. 
It  was  at  once  seen  that  the  scheme  favored  the  poorer  at  the  expense 
of  the  richer  counties;  and  the  counties  where  there  was  most  hostility 
to  free  schools  were  the  chief  gamers  by  the  plan  of  distribution.  "If 
those  fellows  up  north  want  to  pay  for  schools  down  here,  we'll  let 
rem,"  they  said.2 

The  number  of  schools  increased  from  4,215  in  1854  to  10,238  in 
1858.  The  close  of  the  period,  1860,  found  Newton  Bateman,  a  grad- 
uate of  Illinois  College  and  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  in  the  office 
of  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction;  William  H.  Wells,  a 
native  of  Connecticut,  who  came  to  Chicago  in  1856  from  teaching  in 
the  State  Normal  School  of  Westfield,  Mass.,  as  superintendent  of 
schools  in  Chicago;  and  Richard  Edwards,  who  was  born  in  England 
but  had  received  his  education  in  Massachusetts  and  had  held  import- 
ant teaching  positions  in  that  state,  as  principal  of  the  State  Normal 
University. 

The  agitation  for  a  State  Normal  School  arid  an  Industrial  Univers- 
ity belongs  also  to  this  period  and  the  accomplishment  of  those 
objects  is  largely  due  to  the  efforts  of  Prof.  J.  B.  Turner.  Prof. 
Turner  3  was  born  in  Templeton,  Mass.,  and  graduated  from  Yale  col- 
lege in  1832.  He  was  a  brother  of  Asa  Turner  of  the  "Yale  Band.'' 
He  went  to  Illinois  College  in  1833  and  was  a  teacher  there  till  1848 
when  his  pronounced  views  on  slavery  and  the  evils  of  sectarianism 
led  him  to  resign.4  He  was  a  man  of  original  ideas  and  took  the 
broadest  view  of  the  development  of  the  State.  We  have  already 

1  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  in  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  1887-88,  p.  Ixxxviii . 

2  W.  L.  Pillsbury,  in  Keportofthe  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  p.  clxii,  eff. 

3  Ccngregationalists  and  Popular  Education  (Jubilee  Papers,  Ottawa,  1894.) 

4  Eames,  Historic  Morgan  and  Classic  Jacksonville. 


77 

seen  how  in  connection  with  his  duties  at  Illinois  College  he  found 
time  for  lecturing  over  a  wide  territory  on  common  school  education. 

After  leaving  Illinois  College  Turner  continued  his  work  for  educa- 
tion but  also  interested  himself  in  the  industrial  development  of  the 
State.  He  originated  the  planting  of  corn  by  machinery  and  intro- 
duced the  osage  orange  for  hedging  purposes.  The  following  is  the 
account  of  its  introduction:  "He  used  to  seek  and  make  use  of  all 
opportunities  to  go  out  and  talk  to  the  people  on  education.  He 
found  the  farms  wide  apart,  and  farmers  busy,  at  great  cost  of  labor, 
time  and  material,  in  fencing  their  farms  with  split  rails,  laid  in  the 
Virginia  crooked  fence.  They  were  obliged,  too,  to  settle  in  the  woods 
or  on  the  skirts  of  the  forest,  because  it  cost  so  much  to  fence  open 
prairie.  He  said  to  himself:  Those  people  are  too  much  burdened 
to  think  and  act  about  education:  the  best  help  toward  schools  in  Illi- 
nois will  be  an  improvement  in  fencing.  Can  not  hedging  do  the 
work?  This  train  of  thought  fermented  in  his  brain  from  1834.  He 
began  to  experiment  in  hedging,  trying  various  shrubs,  native  and 
foreign.  He  sent  to  England  for  the  hawthorn.  A  visitor  to  his 
house  to  whom  he  told  his  quest  suggested  that  he  should  try  bois 
d'arc  or  osage  orange.  At  considerable  expense  Prof.  Turner  got  a 
quantity  of  the  seed,  which  proved  worthless.  He  tried  again  and 
getting  fertile  seed  and  thence  seedlings  he  continued  his  experiment 
until  he  was  satisfied  that  he  had  the  best  hedging  plant  for  the 
prairies.  The  popularity  of  the  osage  orange  need  not  be  told;  but 
the  singular  fact  that  the  root  and  ground  of  its  introduction  was 
Prof,  Turner's  interest  in  common  school  education  deserves  to  be 
recorded  in  the  educational  history  of  Illinois,  with  his  authentic  ver- 
ification as  the  writer  of  these  lines  had  it  direct  from  the  professor- 
farmer."  The  history  of  Professor  Turner's  leadership  in  the  finally 
successful  movement  for  a  State  Industrial  University  has  been  fully 
set  forth  by  Mr.  Pillsbury  in  an  earlier  volume  of  the  Historical 
Society's  Transactions  and  need  not  be  repeated  here. 

It  is  in  the  history  of  secondary  education  that  it  is  hardest  to 
trace  definite  New  England  and  Puritan  influence.  The  academies 
of  New  England  were  too  prominent  a  feature  of  her  educational 
system  to  leave  any  doubt  that  the  Illinois  academies  were  copied 
from  them.  Morever  we  know  definitely  from  the  Home  Missionary 
records  of  the  founding  of  one  and  another  by  the  home  missionaries; 
for  example,  the  Jacksonville  Female  Academy  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J. 
M.  Ellis  in  1828;  Monticello  Seminary  for  young  women,  the  gift  of 
Capt  Benjamin  Godfrey,  with  Rev.  Theron  Baldwin  as  principal; 
Rev.  Samuel  Foster's  school  for  classical  students  and  young  ladies 
in  Bloomington;  Miss  ChappeFs,  later  Mrs.  Jermiah  Porter's  Sem- 
inary in  Chicago.  From  the  year  1834,  the  statutes  contain  "hosts 
of  acts  of  incorporation  of  academies  and  colleges,  some  of  them  at 
towns  whose  very  names  have  disappeared  from  the  maps." 

The  fact,  that  academies  and  seminaries  in  the  following  towns  are 
mentioned  in  home  missionary  reports,  indicates  the  especial  interest 
of  missionaries  in  these  schools;  Houghton,  Hillsboro,  Waverly, 
Henry,  Geneseo.  Port  Byron,  Peru,  Elgin.  Galesburg,  Batavia,  Bun- 
ker Hill.  Paxton,  Belvidere,  Whipple,  Dover,  Princeton,  Roscoe, 


78 

Carbondale,  Wenona,  Belleville.  One  writer  speaks  of  ten  or  tifteen 
academies  in  northern  Illinois.  There  were  seminaries  for  young 
ladies  at  Monticello.  Godfrey,  Rockford,  Jacksonville,  Du  Quoin, 
Granville,  Washington,  Carlinville,  Galesburg,  Canton  and  Marshall. 

The  young  ladies'  seminary  at  Rockford  has  been  perhaps  the  most 
prosperous  and  successful  of  these.  At  a  general  convention  of  the 
congregational  churches  of  the  northwest,  held  in  Cleveland.  Ohio,  in 
June.  1844,  a  resolution  was  adopted  that  "the  exigencies  of  Wiscon- 
sin and  northern  Illinois  require  that  those  sections  should  unite 
in  establishing  a  college  and  a  female  seminary  of  the  highest  order, 
one  in  Wisconsin,  near  to  Illinois  and  the  other  in  Illinois,  near  to 
Wisconsin.  From  the  first  it  was  believed  that  the  college  should  be 
at  Beloit.  In  1845,  after  four  conventions  held  at  Beloit,  a  board 
of  trustees  was  elected  to  care  for  both  institutions.  Rockford  raised 
$8,500  for  the  Seminary  and  the  trustees  voted  to  locate  it  in  that 
town.  On  February  25,  1847,  a  charter  was  granted  to  the  incorpor- 
ators.  Aratus  Kent  was  named  first  here  as  among  the  trustees. 
Flavel  Bascom  of  the  "Yale  Band"  was  also  one  of  the  number.  Of 
the  sixteen  incorporators  eight  were  clergymen.  The  same  men  were 
the  incorporators  of  Beloit  College. 

In  expectation  of  the  opening  of  the  Seminary,  Rev.  L.  H.  Loss, 
then  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  invited  Miss  Anna 
Peck  Sill,  of  the  Gary  Collegiate  Institute  in  Genesee  county,  New 
York,  to  come  to  Rockford  and  open  a  school,  preparatory  to  the  pro- 
posed Seminary.  This  was  just  the  opportunity  she  desired  for  a 
life  of  missionary  and  educational  service,  for  which  she  was  fitted  by 
the  best  preparation  New  York  then  afforded.  She  opened  her  school 
in  1849  in  Rockford  with  seventy  pupils.  In  1851,  her  school  was 
formally  recognized  by  the  trustees  of  Beloit  College  as  the  prepara- 
tory department  of  Rockford  Female  Seminary,  whose  charter  had 
already  been  obtained.  This  charter  granted  full  collegiate  powers 
though  the  institution  retained  the  name  Seminary  untill  1892.  Fif- 
teen were  admitted  in  this  year  1851  to  the  Seminary  to  constitute 
its  first  class  of  whom  seven  graduated  in  1854.  Miss  Sill  continued 
the  leadership  of  the  school  for  thirty-five  years,  and  raised  much 
money  for  it  in  the  east.  She  is  said  to  have  been  a  woman  of  won- 
derful endowment  of  head  and  heart  and  possessed  also  of  indomi- 
table will.  In  1852,  the  Seminary  passed  into  the  control  of  a  sep- 
arate board  of  trustees  although  for  many  years  certain  men  were  on 
the  boards  of  Beloit  and  Rockford.1 

Linked  thus  to  Beloit  in  its  beginnings,  we  see  how  the  pioneer 
ministers  of  Illinois  did  not  limit  their  eduational  interest  to  Illinois. 
Beloit  College  in  Wisconsin  and  Iowa  College  at  Grinnell,  in  Iowa, 
owed  their  foundation  to  Illinois  home  missionaries.  With  untiring 
effort,  the  New  England  missionaries  and  their  friends  fostered, 
cherished,  promoted  the  interest  in  free  public  schools  until  they 
were  well  established.  They  first  suggested  careful  and  efficient 

1  Church,    History  of  Rockford,  287-295. 


79 

supervision  of  schools;  they  felt  the  need  of  special  education  for 
teachers,  and  from  their  ranks,  came  the  man  who  first  gave  tangible 
shape  to  the  desire  for  industrial  education. 

In  the  field  of  moral  achievement  within  a  social  unit  like  a  state, 
it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  estimate  the  influences  which 
emanate  from  any  group  of  people,  such  as  the  settlers  from  New 
England  in  Illinois;  or  from  their  institutions,  such  as  the  church. 
We  can,  however,  recount  the  moral  issues  that  were  in  men's  minds 
during  a  given  period  and  find  the  attitude  of  different  classes  of 
society  toward  these  issues.  The  history  of  later  years  will  show 
where  a  compromise  of  conflicting  opinion  has  occurred  or  where  one 
set  of  opinions  has  triumphed  in  social  action. 

Public  opinion  of  today  does  not  view  certain  matters,  as  for 
example,  Catholicism,  in  the  same  light  as  did  the  New  Englanders 
in  Illinois  forty  or  fifty  years  ago;  but  in  many  directions  we  must 
acknowledge  the  exceeding  excellence  of  their  ideas  and-  ideals.  They 
stood  for  order,  thrift,  economy  and  enterprise.  They  encouraged  the 
formation  and  expression  of  public  opinion.  They  looked  with  intel- 
ligence beyond  their  own  communities  to  the  welfare  of  state  and 
nation.  They  valued  personal  integrity  above  all  things.  To  foster 
this,  churches  with  all  their  allied  organizations  were  multiplied  east 
and  west,  north  and  south.  But  integrity  must  be  informed,  broad- 
ened, and  so  there  must  be  education,  colleges  for  leaders,  common 
schools  and  industrial  education  for  all  the  people.  Who  may  say  that 
these  influences  of  the  past  have  not  already  conditioned  the  present 
Illinois  whose  true  greatness  is  measured  alone  by  the  enlightened 
integrity  of  her  people. 


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